Sunnyvale, CA, May 20, 2003. Novalux has secured an additional $16 million funding to continue developing and manufacturing the NECSEL (Novalux Extended Cavity Surface Emitting Laser). The latest round of financing was led by three of the company's previous investors - Crescendo Ventures, Dynafund Ventures and Morgan Stanley Venture Partners. This group solicited funds from both existing and new venture capital investors to Novalux and created a new corporation called the Novalux Acquisition Corporation (NAC).
The group provided interim financing to allow Novalux to continue operations while the company filed for voluntary Chapter 11 reorganization. The Chapter 11 case allowed the company to restructure its debt to be conducive to receiving new funding and continue to pursue the company's technology and business strategy under the auspices of NAC. The Company filed for Chapter 11 reorganization on March 11, 2003 and received final court approval for completing the sale of its assets 7 weeks later on Tuesday, May 6th, 2003.
Novalux, originally founded in May of 1998, began shipping its first product, the Protera visible laser system, in December 2002. The first Protera product provides 5mW and 15mW output power at 488nm, with high output power stability, beam pointing stability, and extremely low optical noise. To date, key multinational OEM customers in the Bio-Analytical Instruments market have successfully evaluated and designed the Protera product into their instrumentation. Applications within this market segment include Confocal Microscopy, DNA Sequencing and Flow Cytometry.
While Novalux is now actively producing and shipping Protera units for revenue, the Company also continues to develop other wavelength versions of the Protera laser that address the Bio-Analytical Instruments market as well as expand the company's market presence into other market segments.
The company publicly demonstrated the next generation Protera lasers currently under development at the Photonics West 2003 Conference operating at 460nm and 530nm. Additional target markets for Novalux include Digital Imaging, Reprographics, Digital Photo Refinishing, Semiconductor Inspection, Optical Data Storage, Laser Displays, and a variety of general Scientific Research applications that utilize the basic principles of Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF). By packaging the NECSEL technology into a variety of patented laser architectures, this new technology is capable of delivering a variety of laser products.
The Company has assembled an experienced team of top senior management executives led by Jeffery Cannon, President & CEO, and Aram Mooradian, the company's founder and Vice President/CTO. Cannon originally joined Novalux in April 2002 as Chief Operating Office to lead the company's change in strategic direction from non-frequency-doubled IR NECSEL lasers for telecommunications to frequency-doubled IR lasers for a variety of visible wavelength laser applications.
The company also has a team of scientific advisors and consultants, including Charles Townes. The Company expects these teams to continue with the new purchaser to execute the original Novalux strategy.
The advantage of Novalux's laser technology rests on its new method of producing vertical cavity semiconductor lasers and on its combination of embodying high brightness semiconductor lasers with nonlinear optics (NLO). Semiconductor lasers are compact, rugged, efficient, reliable, and highly manufacturable sources of coherent light; they are extremely compatible with optical fibers and waveguides and offer significant advantages as compared to Diode-Pumped Solid State lasers or Gas lasers.
For more information, visit www.novalux.com .
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