API Acquires NanoOpto

API Nanotronics Corp., a Toronto-based supplier of electronic components to the defense and communications industries, has acquired NanoOpto Corp., a maker of subwavelength optical elements (SOEs) -- tiny subcomponents that form the basis of optical nano-optic components -- for $4 million.

The transaction includes all of NanoOpto's intellectual property related to the design and fabrication of nano-optic devices for optical components and the equipment at its fabrication facility in Somerset, N.J. The purchase was completed on July 19.

Martin Moskovits, chief technology officer of API, said Monday in a statement, "The NanoOpto nanofabrication facilities will provide API with truly unique and powerful materials processing and fabrication capabilities. These capabilities span the full gamut of silicon wafer processing to the very latest electronic and optical fabrication technologies based in nanoscience and MEMS. This will not only expand API's abilities to better serve its current customers and develop new electronic products but also open up possibilities for new business based on hybrid optics. These assets and facilities will also be the centerpiece of API's research and development program."

NanoOpto collaborated with Sumitomo Metal Mining (SMM) to produce a wavelength-dependent polarizer, a component of SMM’s wavelength-dependent isolator, and with Moxtek Inc. to develop a suite of nanotechnology-based optical products for various consumer electronics markets. It received its initial venture financing and broke ground on its fabrication facility in 2001. The facility was the first of its kind to receive ISO 9001:2000 registration. The company's investors included Morgenthaler Ventures, First Analysis, the Draper Fisher Jurvetson Network (including DFJ Gotham Ventures and DFJ New England Ventures), Harris & Harris Group, US Trust’s Excelsior Venture Partners III LLC, Masters Capital Nanotechnology LLC, Nanostart AG, Itochu of Japan and an undisclosed Japanese telecommunications component maker.

PI Nanotronics, through its subsidiaries API Electronics Inc., National Hybrid Inc., Filtran Group, TM Systems and Keytronics, has customers including Honeywell/Allied Signal, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin, and locations in New York, Connecticut and Ontario, manufacturing capabilities in China and a distribution center in the UK.

For more information, visit: www.apinanotronics.com