Date: Jun 20, 2004 Author: Clay Holtzman Source: bizjournals (
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Robin Cantor, president of STAR Cryoelectronics, would probably grin if you told him that space was the final frontier. For his Santa Fe-based tech company, space is only the beginning.
Since its founding in 1999, the company has been developing superconductive magnetic sensors and supporting electronic equipment, with the help of some $1.5 million in Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grants. The vast majority of that total was awarded through NASA, for the development of X-ray detectors.
When used in NASA's astrophysics applications, the sensors reflect changes in X-rays emitted from deep space. This helps researchers determine the chemical composition of distant objects and their environments.
Cantor's technology involves thin films cooled with liquid helium to extreme temperatures, where the material becomes superconductive, rendering no measurable electrical resistance. As X-rays strike the detector in its superconductive state, its temperature fluctuates. The resulting changes are recorded and later analyzed.
Data collected by the detectors, Cantor says, could yield a variety of scientific insights, not discounting the discovery of life elsewhere in the universe.
NASA plans to incorporate the detectors into ground-based telescopes to produce data that will be used to make images of the universe.
"In our case, we are looking at astrophysical objects," says Robert Silverberg, astrophysicist with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "The universe is expanding. Virtually everything is shifting away from us. We study it to try and understand the universe we live in and where we come from -- the origin of the universe."
NASA's most high-profile telescope, however, will likely not see the benefit of the new technology.
"[The] Hubble [telescope] is a little bit old for this," Silverberg says of the new cryoelectronic technology.
Silverberg was the technical coordinator for one of four, phase-one SBIR grants awarded to STAR.
Two of those projects have since been awarded $600,000 each for phase two, or prototype construction.
Cantor is readying more two more phase-two proposals for a Department of Energy SBIR grant.
During the 2003 fiscal year, more than $57.5 million was contracted to New Mexico businesses through NASA, including more than $1.2 million to STAR Cryoelectronics. Altogether, including the state's universities, about $81.3 million was pledged to New Mexico in fiscal year 2003.
But Cantor's technology is hardly a pure space case.
"Even though we're using it this way, it has many other uses," Silverberg says --and it's those other uses that have Cantor really excited about the future of his firm.
Jim Hale, director of project development and business assistance at Albuquerque's Technology Ventures Corporation, says that STAR's space applications are great, but the prospect of putting Cantor's technology to use in the commercial sector promises even more significant changes for the company.
"These are products with commercial opportunities," Hale says.
Because the sensors are used to detect, and then amplify, the most minute changes in electrical currents, they have tremendous potential in fields like biomedicine, where sensitivity is key.
"The NASA work has allowed us to revamp our sensor line," Cantor says, and similar technology is now being used in geophysical exploration to find pockets of oil and gas around the world.
Coming back to Earth
Cantor admits that the research to create, improve and then find alternate applications for his sensors would have been more difficult if it weren't for the SBIR grants his firm has received through NASA.
"Obviously this type of funding is important for the business," Cantor says. "Without that kind of support, through the SBIR program offices -- we just wouldn't be able to compete."
That competition includes two European firms who are also producing highly sensitive superconducting sensors.
So far, the company has received the bulk of its operating revenue from SBIR grants, loans from Los Alamos National Bank, and sales from its Superconducting Quantum Interference Device sensors (SQUID) and advanced PC-based SQUID control electronics products worldwide.
Already, research institutions around the world are using Cantor's SQUID sensors to record and localize magnetic signals in the brain, called magnetoencephalography.
The SQUID sensor line was originally developed by Cantor's former employer, Sunnyvale Calf.-based Conductus Inc., and is now licensed from the firm by Cantor's company. Sales and possibly future partnerships with outside firms could begin providing the large-scale revenue that Cantor wants -- and local economic development officials lust for.
Cathie Zacher, president of Santa Fe Economic Development Inc., says her organization wants to see more local high tech businesses like Cantor's. Though such companies often start small, they can quickly grow into firms that provide the city with a strong tax base, along with high-paying jobs, and accompanying benefits, for employees.
"When you look at the cost of living here, those are the kinds of jobs that are going to allow people to [stay]," Zacher says.
STAR is currently generating about $1 million in annual revenues. It has eight salaried employees and contracts work to several more.
In the future, employees could be making their sensors and X-ray detectors for computer chip companies that want to test the quality of their semiconductors, or energy exploration firms that can use them to search for oil and gas pockets through changes in Earth's magnetic field.
Cantor says knowing that the work his company is doing can have an impact on several industries is exciting.
The natural progression of his original technology into detecting X-rays and now into new industries was what he had always intended to do.
"We're looking at this new application of X-ray detection that would open up new applications," Cantor says. "It's a very good fit with our existing core technologies."
Takeoff assistance
Cantor says he owes thanks to several companies and individuals that have helped STAR get off the ground, stay among the stars, and then land safely in its commercial sector ventures.
One of those groups is the Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program (SATOP), a NASA-funded venture.
Last year, while completing one of its NASA contracts, STAR Cryoelectronics was experiencing technical difficulties and needed help tracking down the cause.
SATOP put Cantor in contact with a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where Cantor worked just prior to founding STAR. In a good news/bad news fix, he helped determine the solution: buying a $100,000 piece of equipment.
Far better news came in May, when STAR was officially recognized as one of SATOP's four success stories of 2003.
Albuquerque-based Next Generation Economy, an economic development organization, also provided significant assistance by helping STAR locate key pieces of equipment that are still used today in its 6,000-square-foot Santa Fe facility.
STAR's building houses a production laboratory, a 500-square-foot clean room, an office and warehouse space. The firm is in the process of expanding several parts of the operation.
