Tech startup of the month: Ionic Fusion Longmont www.ionicfusion.com founded: March 2001.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: Hightech Coloradobiz

INITIAL LIGHTBULB: Working on a particle-accelerator project at Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico, John Petersen devised a method to impregnate metal ions into just about any material--anything from tissue paper to stainless steel--to enhance such desired characteristics as hardness or conductivity.

An engineer with more than 20 international patents relating to deposition technology, Petersen at the time was an employee of Rapid Prototyping Corp. in Longmont. To commercialize his technology, he teamed with that company's president/founder and its VP, Rod Ward and Vincent Sciortino, respectively, and spun off Ionic Fusion as a separate business.

In August 2001, Ward sold Rapid Prototyping in order to focus on Ionic Fusion. In 2002, Ionic Fusion landed an investment from retired tech exec Joe Ryan and made him Ionic Fusion's president. Today, Ward is the company's CEO, Petersen CTO, and Sciortino VP of business development.

"With three wonderfully creative and talented engineers and scientists, every day was the next big, new thing," said Ryan. "My job was to instill some discipline."

FINANCING: In November 2002, Ionic Fusion closed on a first funding round of $1.3 million from angel investors, Ryan among them. The company is currently pursuing a second round of $5 million to hire additional key people and further commercialize its technology.

IN A NUTSHELL: Ionic Fusion's proprietary process, Ionic Plasma Deposition (IPD), is superior to traditional vacuum coating methods because ions are actually impregnated beyond the surface of a given substance. The process takes place in a production chamber at the company's Longmont headquarters.

"It could change the way we make the technologies of the future," Ryan said, describing the process as more efficient and effective than older deposition technologies; in short, it embeds more ions, more deeply. Additionally, IPD can be done at room temperature, whereas other deposition methods require considerably...