Intermolecular Inc of San Jose, CA, USA and LED chipmaker Epistar Corp of Hsinchu, Taiwan have signed a collaborative development program and royalty-bearing IP licensing agreement. Under the agreement, Epistar and Intermolecular engineers will work together to leverage Intermolecular's High Productivity Combinatorial (HPC) technology platform to accelerate development and manufacturing qualification of novel materials and processes relating to Epistar’s LED products.
Intermolecular says it has pioneered a proprietary approach to accelerate research and development, innovation, and time-to-market for the semiconductor and clean energy industries. The approach consists of its HPC platform, coupled with its multi-disciplinary team. Through paid collaborative development programs with its customers, Intermolecular develops proprietary technology and intellectual property for its customers focused on advanced materials, processes, integration and device architectures.
"After a rigorous review of Intermolecular's capabilities through an initial collaboration engagement, we have seen how their combinatorial approach to materials innovation and device integration can augment Epistar's leadership in LED technology," said M. J. Jou, president of Epistar. "Collaboration with our industry partners has been critical to our world-leading R&D and manufacturing strategy. We are confident that leveraging Intermolecular's team and technology platform will further increase our competitive advantage."
A multi-functional team of technologists from Epistar and Intermolecular will work together using the HPC Platform to accelerate the pace of R&D ten times or more compared to what can be achieved in a conventional LED lab, says Intermolecular.
"We are very excited to partner with Epistar, a global leader in LED manufacturing," commented Sandeep Nijhawan, senior vice president and general manager of Intermolecular's clean energy group. "Entering into a strategic engagement with a top-tier LED company like Epistar validates the applicability and disruptive potential of the HPC technology platform for LEDs, a market that continues to have tremendous room for growth and technology innovation."
