X-Celeprint establishes operations in Ireland to commercialize hybrid silicon photonics
Cork, Ireland--Wholly owned subsidiary of holding company XTRION and developer and sole licensor of patented Micro-Transfer-Printing (μTP) technology, X-Celeprint announced commencement of its business operations and named Kyle Benkendorfer chief executive officer. X-Celeprint believes its massively parallel approach for assembling microscale semiconductor devices onto non-native substrates is the industry’s lowest-cost and most scalable method for assembly of heterogeneously integrated devices; it opens new opportunities for high-volume, high-performance applications such as silicon photonics-based optoelectronics and next-generation data storage.
X-Celeprint also was named an industry partner today at the official opening of the Tyndall National Institute’s new Irish Photonics Integration Centre (IPIC), joining a network of 18 industry partners in the Centre. In total, Tyndall National Institute has more than 200 industry partners that deliver economic growth to Ireland with their leading-edge technologies.
X-Celeprint's patented μTP (Micro-Transfer-Printing) technology that integrates microscale semiconductor devices such as lasers, light-emitting devices (LEDs) or integrated circuits (ICs) onto non-native substrates originally was invented by Professor John Rogers and co-workers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The X-Celeprint process uses an engineered elastomer print-head coupled to an automated printer to pick up and transfer arrays of very small and thin semiconductor-based devices. The μTP technology is ideal for heterogeneous integration of non-silicon devices and silicon integrated circuits in More-than-Moore applications, and for printing high-performance microscale device arrays onto plastic substrates in printed and flexible electronics applications.
CEO Kyle Benkendorfer, educated at the London Business School, Texas A&M University and Reed College, brings more than 30 years of experience to his new role at X-Celeprint. He previously served for five years as Sr. Director of Business Development at Semprius and was Director at X-Celeprint since its inception last year.
Commenting on X-Celeprint's industry partnership with Tyndall and location within the Tyndall facility, Benkendorfer said, "We are headquartered in Ireland because of Tyndall’s synergistic work environment, and the unique research and commercialization opportunities it offers through its relationships with renowned international technology companies. We anticipate X-Celeprint will generate from 10 to 20 technical and licensing jobs in Ireland during the next two to three years. The combination of our technology and the application development capabilities at Tyndall could entice other companies around the world to bring additional resources into the Cork area."
Tyndall CEO Kieran Drain said, "We are very pleased to have X-Celeprint become an industry partner of Tyndall today. The company has tremendous synergy with many of our research programs, and brings a very creative and disruptive approach to solving some of the major issues in the semiconductor, flexible electronics, LED, and display industries. We are confident that our partnership with X-Celeprint will have a significant impact in driving commercialisation of silicon photonics. It is an exciting development to be bringing such core expertise in silicon photonics to Ireland."
Rogers added, "Micro-transfer printing is uniquely suited for a wide variety of applications in the field of electronics. I look forward to observing X-Celeprint's commercial progress because I believe they are commencing operations at the perfect point in time to take advantage of the convergence of market needs in the electronics and photonics fields and micro-transfer printing technology capabilities."
In addition to the technology itself, X-Celeprint offers application-specific technology development, technology transfer and the hardware such as printers and printheads required to practice μTP.
SOURCE: X-Celeprint; http://www.x-celeprint.com/x-celeprint-commences-business-operations-names-kyle-benkendorfer-ceo/
Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)
Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.