August 30, 2022 07:00 ET | Source: C3Nano

HAYWARD, Calif., Aug. 30, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — C3Nano, Inc. (C3Nano), the performance leader and innovator of nanowire-based technologies for transparent conductors, announced today the successful completion of a $35 million growth capital financing, comprised of equity and debt. The equity financing was led by Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE: ESI), a leading specialty chemicals company whose business supplies a broad range of solutions that enhance the performance of products people use every day, including consumer electronics, power electronics, semiconductor fabrication, communication and data storage infrastructure, and automotive systems. New debt financing was provided by insured technology financing pioneer, PIUS Limited, LLC.

“This financing is a significant milestone for C3Nano, adding capital, resources, and a new strategic partner to accelerate and enable our efforts to commercialize our industry-leading nanowire technologies for 2023 and beyond,” said Cliff Morris, president and chief executive officer of C3Nano.

The growth capital will enable C3Nano to expand its Hayward, California-based silver nanowire synthesis and production capacity, as well as add resources to accelerate its efforts to innovate and commercialize its nanowire-based technologies.

“C3Nano has built an exceptional electronic materials platform underpinned by proven, ground-breaking technologies, based on PIUS’ initial and re-evaluation of its intellectual property,” said Joe Agiato, founder and chief executive officer of PIUS. “We are excited to continue our partnership as a capital solution provider that positions C3Nano to continue its significant growth in the years ahead.”

This capital raise follows others from world class strategic investors such as Nitto Denko, Hitachi Chemical, Lens Technology, and Nissha. The investment will enable C3Nano to continue driving growth amid increasing adoption of silver nanowire-based technologies in consumer electronics, automotive applications, life sciences, and cleantech.

C3Nano, Inc. is the performance leader in next-generation, transparent conductive inks and films for the touch sensor and display industry. The company has more than 120 global patents (issued or pending) including multiple patents which cover its NanoGlue^® technology. NanoGlue acts to fuse the conductive silver nanowires (AgNWs) technology into a new high-performance conductive network or grid (ActiveGrid™). NanoGlue is effective in lowering sheet resistance, while maintaining excellent optical transparency, low haze, and low reflectivity.

The Company’s products are used by global manufacturers of mobile devices, notebook computers, and tablets. C3Nano’s revolutionary technology is also in use in large area interactive TV and automotive sensor applications.
C3Nano’s investors include Nitto Denko, Hitachi Chemical, Lens Technology, and Nissha. Venture capital investors include GSR Ventures and Phoenix Venture Partners. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, C3Nano operates manufacturing, sales, and technical support facilities in the U.S. and in Asia. More information about C3Nano is available at www.c3nano.com.

Element Solutions Inc. is a leading specialty chemicals company whose businesses supply a broad range of solutions that enhance the performance of products people use every day. Developed in multi-step technological processes, these innovative solutions enable customers’ manufacturing processes in several key industries, including consumer electronics, power electronics, semiconductor fabrication, communications and data storage infrastructure, automotive systems, industrial surface finishing, consumer packaging, and offshore energy. More information about the Element Solutions is available at www.elementsolutionsinc.com.

PIUS Limited, LLC offers a proprietary insurance product for growing technology companies, which utilizes a company’s intellectual property (IP) as collateral. By insuring the loan based on its evaluation of a company’s IP, PIUS helps facilitate greater loan amounts at better rates, while transferring the risk from the lender to the insurer. Through PIUS’ CLip Notes program, PIUS provides the insurance, brings the capital source via institutional investors, and monitors the transaction, providing a complete solution. For more information, visit https://piusre.com.

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As foldable and wearable displays start reaching the market, these devices will have to be able to bend without cracking.

Andrew Moon, C3Nano Director of Sales and Marketing

New generations of electronic devices are demanding new functionality in display materials. While traditional displays have been rigid and non-interactive, new displays will be highly interactive as well as flexible, foldable and even stretchable. This is generating unprecedented opportunities for new advanced materials.  Silver Nanowire-based inks and films are emerging as the dominant candidate to replace indium tin oxide (ITO).

Figure 1: A laptop prototype with a flexible display. (Source: Lenovo)

In this article, we’ll look at the limitations of ITO in meeting future demands for display materials and see how silver nanowire-based films are being adopted and gaining significant traction.  ITO and other brittle metal oxides are the preeminent transparent conducting materials in a wide variety of applications from smartphones and tablets to touch sensors, OLED lighting, OLED displays, EMI shielding, smart windows, E-paper, LCDs and solar cells (see figure 1). However, these applications have conventionally been planar and rigid.

Foldable and wearable displays are starting to hit the market, and with the adoption and expansion of 5G and the “internet of things” we can expect rapid growth of flexible electronics. These devices will have to be able to bend without cracking, and to withstand hundreds of thousands of bend cycles.

For applications like the one shown in Figure 1, engineers and scientists are developing their flexible, lighter-weight, and more conformable applications like foldable phones, more ergonomic wearables, flexible displays, shielding layers, and solar cells, which require a more robust and flexible transparent conductor.

ITO offers good conductivity, but it is brittle and cracks when bent or folded. Additionally, ITO exhibits limited transparencies at lower resistances, which are necessary for large-area interactive displays or smartphones that require sub-100 ohms per square.

As its name implies, a silver nanowire (also called AgNW) is an ultrathin and long filament of metallic silver. A silver nanowire with a diameter of a few nanometers (10⁻⁹ meters) is roughly 1,000 times thinner than a human hair. Thin films of silver nanowires can be coated or deposited onto transparent substrates and can form a conductive network. Since the nanowires are made from silver, electricity can pass through the wires and due of their nanoscale size, these wires also do not interact strongly with visible light, and much of the void spaces between wires also allow for light to pass.  The unique combination of high conductivity and high light transmissivity make silver nanowire based TCFs the leading contender to replace ITO.  Nevertheless, there are other materials such as metal mesh, carbon nanotubes, copper nanowires, conductive polymers and graphene, all of which are being considered as potential replacement candidates. Metal Mesh, which is a grid formed by micron (10^-6 m) metallic conductors can offer very low and attractive resistances, but often suffers from several optical issues due the relatively large size of the metallic grid and its regular geometric pattern.  Other materials like carbon nanotubes and graphene are mechanically robust but have much poorer light transmission when compared to ITO or silver nanowire based TFs. Overall, silver nanowire-based TCFs offer the best overall material in terms of flexibility, low resistivity, and better transparency. Moreover, silver nanowire-based solutions have been developed for years, have several design wins, serial production and are in full-scale manufacturing today.

To summarize, in comparison with ITO, silver nanowire-based materials offer:

Figure 2: Flexible touch sensor using ActiveGrid™ Film (Source: C3Nano)

As the display industry evolves from static to flexible and highly interactive, the materials used to create those displays must also evolve. Silver nanowire-based materials deliver the optical quality, conductivity, flexibility, manufacturability and low costs required of the next generation of flexible displays.

A provider of silver nanowire-based transparent conductive inks, C3Nano says its ActiveGrid Gen7 ink delivers breakthrough clarity, conductivity and flexibility, with a 50 percent lower haze compared to its previous ink formulation.

C3Nano Inc. (Hayward, Calif.), a maker of transparent conductive inks and films, has announced generation 7 of its silver nanowire based material with improved optical quality.

C3Nano, the specialist in silver nanowire-based transparent conductive inks and films for flexible displays, has developed ActiveGrid Gen7 ink, which improves on clarity, conductivity and flexibility.

ActiveGrid Gen 7 Ink boosts optical quality with enhanced flexibility

Hayward, California, USA and Changzhou, Jiangsu, China–(Canadian)–C3Nano (C3Nano), the core technology of touch, display and flexible electronics industry, based on nano-silver based transparent conductive technology The leader announced today that it has officially opened its scale production center in Changzhou, China.

With the support of the Changzhou National High-tech Zone, the 14,373-square-foot facility will become C3Nano’s Asian production center and China headquarters. C3Nano China is committed to producing its leading ActiveGridTM range of transparent conductive pastes and films. This state-of-the-art center will also undertake C3Nano’s Asian customer support, supply chain management and application development.

Director Wang Yuwei of Changzhou National High-tech Zone Management Committee said: “We are very pleased to cooperate with C3Nano and its management team to fully support the key materials needed to produce this global display industry in Changzhou National High-tech Zone. We look forward to working with C3Nano Establish a successful partnership.”

The official opening of the center in December 2018 is critical to supporting the growing demand for flexible touch and OLED displays, which are core components of the next generation of flexible handsets and other flexible mobile devices worldwide. C3Nano’s performance-first transparent conductive film has recently been successfully selected as a key supply resource for a next-generation flexible display product and is widely recognized by industry peers as a leading supplier to this key industry.

“We are honored to be able to establish our scale production center in cooperation with Changzhou National High-tech Zone,” said C3Nano CEO Clifford Morris. “This center and its location are critical to our future development in China and other parts of Asia. C3Nano plays an important role in the emerging flexible display market and our customers are very happy to see our further development in China.”

About C3Nano company

C3Nano was founded in 2010 by Silicon Valley in the United States by renowned Chinese female scientists, academician of the American Academy of Engineering, and Professor Bao Zinnan of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. The company is an advanced materials company dedicated to the development of new materials and chemical technologies used in a wide range of electronic applications. C3Nano’s investors and partners include Jinshajiang Venture Capital, Phoenix Ventures, Japan Photo, Hitachi Chemical, Lansi Technology, Changchun America, and other undisclosed investors, including a top global mobile based Silicon Valley Internet technology company.

View the source version press release on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181203006002/en-US/

CONTACT:

Contact: Andrew Moon 
eMail: info@c3nano.com

Bin Changzhou Development Zone in Changzhou National High-tech Zone. See original article.

On December 4th, C3Nano (C3Nano), the core technology of touch, display and flexible electronics industry, and the leader of transparent silver-based conductive technology, announced the official opening of the scale production center of Binjiang International Enterprise Port. It will also become C3Nano’s Asian production center and China headquarters. Wang Yuwei, member of the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee, deputy director of the High-tech Zone Management Committee, deputy head of the district, and Dan Dayou, director of the Binkai District Management Committee, and other relevant departments of the city and district participated in the event.

The official opening of the production center is critical to supporting the growing demand for flexible touch and OLED displays, which are core components of the next generation of flexible handsets and other flexible mobile devices worldwide.C3Nano’s first performance transparent conductive film has recently been successfully selected as a key supply resource for a next-generation flexible display product, and is widely recognized by industry colleagues as a leading supplier to this key industry.

Wang Yuwei said “It is a pleasure to work with C3Nano and its management team to fully support the key materials needed to produce this global display industry in the high-tech zone. Looking forward to establishing a successful partnership with C3Nano.”

Cliff Morris, C3Nano CEO said “We are proud to partner with the Changzhou National High-tech Zone to set up our scale production center, which is critical to our future development in China and other parts of Asia. C3Nano plays an important role in the emerging flexible display market, and our customers are very happy to see our further development in China.”

Read more HERE.

Here’s our updated list of 60 startups worth watching

(Asterisks denote the companies that are new to the Silicon 60.)

AccelerComm Ltd.* (Southampton, U.K.) is a semiconductor IP core company that provides channel-coding solutions for communications standards. Founded in 2016, it is coming to market with polar encoder and decoder solutions for 3GPP’s 5G standards. www.accelercomm.com

AerNos Inc.* (La Jolla, California), founded in 2016, uses doped materials and nanotechnology to detect multiple airborne gases and volatile organic compounds simultaneously at part-per-billion levels. Its sensors include carbon nanotubes, nanowires, and polymers. www.aernos.com

Aledia SA (Grenoble, France), spun out of CEA-Leti in 2011, has developed a method of forming light-emitting diodes (LEDs) within vertical pillars of gallium nitride grown on silicon wafers. The company claims that the technique produces three times more light per planar area than conventional approaches while using less GaN material. www.aledia.com

AlphaICs Corp.* (Milpitas, California) was founded in 2016 to address artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tasks with a processor architecture designed to support “agents.” The company also has an office in Bangalore, India. www.alphaics.ai

AnDapt Inc. (San Jose, California), a fabless vendor founded in 2014, has launched configurable ICs that combine power MOSFET, analog, and digital circuitry and can be used to create power circuits. Its team includes veteran semiconductor executives Kapil Shankar and John Birkner. Intel Capital and Cisco are backers. www.andapt.com

Barefoot Networks Inc. (Santa Clara, California), a microprocessor startup founded in 2013, has attracted US$130 million in funding from strategic backers that include Google, Goldman Sachs, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Its Tofino chips aim to make programming complex networks as easy as writing C++ code in an emerging open-source language, called P4, that the company helped create. www.barefootnetworks.com

BrainChip Inc. (Aliso Viejo, California) is developing spiking neural networking cores for licensing to semiconductor partners. Founded in December 2013, it is now owned by BrainChip Holdings Ltd., which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. The company appointed Louis DiNardo as CEO in September 2016. www.brainchipinc.com

Cambricon Technologies Corp. Ltd. (Beijing), founded in 2016, is developing AI chips. It offers the MLU100 processor for deep learning and the MLU100 intelligent processing card, as well as intellectual-property (IP) licensing and chip services. Cambricon’s products can be applied in smartphones, security and surveillance cameras, servers, robots, drones, wearable devices, and autonomous driving. www.cambricon.com

Cerebras Systems Inc. (Los Altos, California), a startup working on specialized chips for deep-learning applications, claims to have backing from premier venture capitalists and leading technologists. It was founded in 2016 and is headed by Andrew Feldman, who sold micro-server chip company SeaMicro to Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in 2012 for US$334 million. Benchmark is reported to have led a funding round totaling more than US$20 million. www.cerebras.net

Corephotonics Ltd. (Tel Aviv, Israel), a pioneer of multi-aperture cameras for smartphones, offers zoom capabilities while keeping the tele-objective mechanics within the phones’ low-profile constraints. It was founded in 2012 by Tel Aviv University professor David Mendlovic, a former chief scientist of the Ministry of Science and now Corephotonics’ CEO. In 2017, the company raised US$15 million in a round that included Samsung Ventures, Foxconn, and MediaTek. It is collaborating with camera module integrator Samsung Electro-Mechanics to develop a complete reference design based on its dual-camera IP. www.corephotonics.com

Crossbar Inc. (Santa Clara), formed in 2010, has developed a resistive random access memory (ReRAM) based on the migration of silver ions through amorphous silicon to form a filamentary structure. The company is aiming to produce a multilayered standalone terabyte memory die and integrate the technology in standard CMOS logic to provide embedded nonvolatile memory. It offers predefined and custom IP cores with specific features, sizes, and performance. www.crossbar-inc.com

C3Nano Inc.* (Hayward, California), founded in 2010 as a spinout from Zhenan Bao’s chemical engineering lab at Stanford University, has developed solution-coated, transparent, conductive materials that compete with indium tin oxide and can be superior to ITO for flexible applications. NanoGlue technology is used to fuse a matrix of conductive silver nanowires into a conductive network or grid and can lower sheet resistance while maintaining optical transparency and low haze. www.c3nano.com

Read more at EETimes HERE.