RTI International announced on 20050128 plans to commercialize the superlattice TE device technology developed there by Dr. Venkatasubramanian's group. The new company is not yet named and about 20 RTI employees are expected to join the new company, while others are expected to continue thermoelectric research at RTI.

The full press release is available from the RTI website:
http://www.rti.org/page.cfm?nav=86&objectid=3A601F3A-A0D0-481B-A62DDF726...

and is reproduced (with permission) below:

RTI International - News Release - 01.28.2005
RTI International to Spin Off Thermoelectrics Research Technology

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -- RTI International today announced plans to commercialize a breakthrough thermoelectrics technology through the formation of a company headed by one of its executives.

The new company, which is in the forming stage, will commercialize high performance ultra-thin film, thermoelectric superlattice devices developed at RTI under the leadership of Rama Venkatasubramanian, Ph.D., in collaboration with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense.

The superlattice material allows the efficient transfer of heat and energy between the solid state components of computer microchips, eliminating "hot spots" generated within high-speed microprocessors.

The technology clears the way for development of next-generation devices that not only precisely control temperature variances within microprocessor chips, but also convert those temperature variances into electricity.

The journal Nature published an RTI research paper in October 2001 recognizing this technology as the first significant breakthrough in the field of thermoelectrics in four decades. RTI also earned an R&D 100 Award in 2002 for this technological innovation.

"We are pleased and proud to see this technology move from the research laboratory into commercial development," said RTI President and CEO Victoria Haynes. "I commend the company’s management team, led by Jesko von Windheim, and its talented researchers and engineers for their efforts to both develop this technology and to create this new company. We believe this technology has a great future in the commercial marketplace because it creates new and innovative approaches to solving what have been important government and industrial challenges."

Since becoming president of RTI in 1999, Haynes has stressed the need to commercialize products and services as a means of generating value from technology research investments and generating revenue to reinvest in other areas.

The new company represents the second RTI innovation that has been spun off from its semiconductor research group in the past four years. In 2000, RTI spun-off another portion of the group into Ziptronix, a company whose technology allows integration through "wafer bonding and backside processing."

This transition is also consistent with the desire of funding agencies that want to see pay-off from research investments being transitioned into commercially viable and commercially available products.

"The ability to transition scientific concepts to marketable, naval-relevant technologies is a core tenet of Naval Science & Technology investment strategy," said Dr. John Pazik of the Office of Naval Research. "This spin-off marks yet another welcome and crucial step forward to the Navy and Marine Corps realizing advanced cooling and power generation systems."

Those comments were echoed by officials at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA, which has not only funded a great deal of RTI’s thermoelectrics research, but also continues to fund RTI research in this area.

"The transition of RTI’s breakthrough technology to its spin-off company represents the fruition of a highly successful research and development collaboration between DoD and industry," said Valerie Browning, Ph.D., program manager of the Defense Science Office at DARPA. "The commercialization of their breakthrough superlattice thermoelectric technology has the potential to address some of the most pressing thermal management needs of both the military and commercial industries."

"This is a very proud moment for all of us who have been working to develop this technology at RTI," said Venkatasubramanian, who will serve as the new company’s chief technology officer. "The ability to provide anywhere, anytime cooling and heating technology will play a significant role in future generations of microchips across a broad range of industries and products."

About 20 RTI employees will join the new company, while other staff members of its former group continue to pursue other areas of thermoelectric research at RTI.

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