If a way could be found to magnify the unseen emissions that remain even in darkness, by passing them through special "glasses," then we could "see" things even when the light is too dim to sense objects with the naked eye.

Such glasses already exist. They were developed for military use and are quite expensive. High-performance night-vision devices typically cost more than $1,000 - too much for general consumer use.

This ATP project with Galileo Corporation, founded in the middle 1970s to develop microchannel plates (MCPs), aimed to develop a much less-expensive process technology that would make night-vision devices widely available to, for example, law enforcement officials and the estimated 400,000 Americans suffering from retinitis pigmentosa (night blindness). Another potential use of the technology is in detector components for highly miniaturized analytical instruments. Funding from the ATP enabled Galileo to perform research to develop the new fabrication processes and higher performance prototype MCPs that it would otherwise have been unable to do and helped the company form alliances with research partners and contractors.

New Electron Multipliers

The ATP project involved the development of new kinds of electron multiplier devices based on the same kind of manufacturing technology used in semiconductor fabrication. An MCP is a flat, usually disc-shaped array of closely packed microscopic tubes that act as tiny amplifiers. Electrons, photons or ions entering one side of the plate trigger a cascade of thousands of electrons out the other side. MCPs form the heart of image intensifiers used in night-vision and scientific devices and electronic imaging systems. MCPs are currently made using glass-working techniques developed for producing fiberoptic bundles. The process has been improved greatly over the years but has reached its limits in terms of further cost reductions and performance improvements.

Galileo's ATP project abandoned the glass-fiberoptic production approach to MCPs and instead used the photolithography, dry-etch, wet-etch, and thin-film-deposition technologies developed by the semiconductor industry to develop improved MCPs. The company succeeded in the technical goals of the project, developing new fabrication procedures and using them to demonstrate prototypes of working, high performance electron-multiplier devices.

Financial Distress

During the last six months of its 26-month ATP project, Galileo encountered financial problems and decided to abandon its original goal of in-house commercialization of the new process technologies for electron multipliers. The company has continued to produce MCPs using its earlier fabrication process and sell them. Even though feasibility of the new approach was demonstrated by the ATP project, Galileo officials reported that another $5 million investment would have been needed to commercialize the advanced performance MCPs using the new process. They say they could not justify the investment for commercialization, given the company's financial difficulties and the length of time needed to build revenue streams.

Commercialization Potential

At the close of the project, the company entered into an agreement with the Center for Advanced Fiberoptic Applications (CAFA), a new nonprofit consortium charged with commercializing technologies developed by Galileo and other CAFA members, mainly small to medium sized optics companies in the mid-Massachusetts area. Galileo granted a non-exclusive royalty-free license of the ATP-funded technology to CAFA. The principal investigator on the ATP project left Galileo to become section head for microelectromechanical systems in the CAFA consortium. In addition to licensing agreements, CAFA is pursuing partnerships with a number of companies as an avenue for commercializing the ATP-funded MCP technology, but the chances for commercialization are uncertain at this time.

In theory, it is expected that the technology will reduce the costs of MCP production and improve performance, but these effects have not yet been shown in practice. The prototype demonstration focused on the feasibility of the new process technology adapted from the semiconductor industry to produce MCPs and on improved MCP performance, rather than on their comparative costs. Laboratory tests and calculations suggested that production costs would be lower using the new technology, but no pilot project has yet been developed, so those predictions have not been confirmed. Demonstrated lower costs and improved performance would make it more feasible to pursue new market opportunities for applications to address night blindness.

In addition, the technology holds further potential that might one day be realized. It is important for miniature scientific and analytical instruments - for example, a mass spectrometer on a chip. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently awarded a contract to develop components for miniaturized mass spectrometers to CAFA, Galileo and the Argonne National Laboratory, under which prototypes have been delivered and are now being evaluated. While the NASA contract did not itself involve the use of the ATP-funded technology, extensions to additional contracts could easily do so, because of the need for additional miniaturization. Commercialization of the technology for this application, if it can be accomplished, could also have far-reaching economic benefits.

Go to other sections of Chapter 5: ELECTRONICS
	Expanding the Number of Light Signals in an Optical Fiber
	Manufacturing Technology for High-Performance Optoelectronic Devices
	Processes for Growing Large, Single Silicon Carbide Crystals
	Harnessing Cheap Diode Lasers to Power a Low-Cost Surgical Laser
	Lowering the Cost and Improving the Quality of Computer Chips
	A Gas Method to "Dry" Clean Computer-Chip Wafers
	Low-Cost Night-Vision Technology
	Large-Scale Diode-Array Laser Technology for X-Ray Lithography
	Using High-Temperature Superconductivity to Improve Cellular Phone Transmission
	Exploiting Alexandrite's Unique Properties for a Less-Expensive, More-Reliable Tunable Laser
	Precision Mirrors for Advanced Lithography
	Joining Several Chips Into One Complex Integrated Circuit
	Computer RAM Chips That Hold Memory When Power Is Off
	A Feedback-Controlled, Metallo-Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition Reactor
	Flat Fluorescent Lamps for Displays