Phair Corp. >> tech startup of the month.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: Phiar corporation in wireless technology

INITIAL LIGHTBULB

At the University of Colorado-Boulder, Ph.D.s Garret Moddel and Blake Eliasson were working on solar-cell technology when their research took them in a different direction--into one of the last frontiers of the radio wave and light spectrum, the terahertz spectrum. This spectrum consists of very small waves (from 300 gigahertz to 3 terahertz in length) invisible to the naked eye and notoriously difficult and expensive to produce. If it weren't so hard to conjure, terahertz radiation would be ideal for certain applications in wireless communications, medical imaging and sensing.

Moddel and Eliasson's breakthrough at CU involved a low-cost, high-performance platform to develop emitters, detectors and radios starting with diodes that contain two layers of insulation between their metal components instead of the industry standard of one, a novel sandwich that makes for a considerably higher performance at lower cost.

Moddel and Eliasson spun off their patents into Phiar in 2001 and have since seen the company move toward the development of products, the first of which are slated to be available by 2008.

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IN A NUTSHELL

"We have a technology that will allow electronic devices in general to operate at much higher frequencies," said Phiar CEO Bob Goodman, who came to the company last year. "(Manufacturing) doesn't require new equipment, it doesn't require expensive materials, it's an evolutionary technology that can break through a lot of the barriers that exist today in traditional semiconductor processes."

The sandwich-like diodes are the key to Phiar's technology.

After "productizing" their diodes, Phiar's team will develop the transistors. Initially--i.e. by 2008--Phiar hopes these diodes and transistors will be used to replace higher-cost, lower-performance transistors and diodes in all sorts of electronic devices.

In recent years, the...