July 5, 2006, Cambridge, MA--SiOnyx, Inc. has closed on an initial seed round of financing to the amount of $750,000 from Harris and Harris Group (New York, NY). SiOnyx is working to commercialize optoelectronic products (detectors and imaging arrays) based on a unique material the company calls "black silicon." SiOnyx is a spinout of Harvard University (Cambridge, MA).
Black-silicon-based detectors exhibit extremely high response to visible wavelengths and extend the useful range of silicon-based photodetectors into the IR region. SiOnyx aims to address market opportunities in high-quality and high-resolution cameras, day/night cameras for security and surveillance, and high-sensitivity detectors and imagers for biotechnology applications.
Harris and Harris Group, a venture-capital company, makes initial investments exclusively in what it calls "tiny technology," including nanotechnology, microsystems, and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). It has invested in NanoOpto (Somerset, NJ), which produces subwavelength structured optical films and devices (see www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/207014); Neophotonics (San Jose, CA), involved in planar-lightwave circuits; Molecular Imprints (Austin, TX), which has developed imprint-lithographic processes for fabrication of nanoelectronics, nanophotonics, and other nanodevices (see www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/234080); and others.