Thinking SMALL – Tiny things may mean big business for the state’s (New Mexico- why not Montana?) tech future

New Mexicans have mixed feelings about the word micro.

For some, it is a sad reminder of our failure to keep the software giant Microsoft – which began humbly in Albuquerque in the mid 1970s. The company, which now enjoys $32 billion in annual sales, quickly moved to Seattle with its first tastes of success.

By Sue Vorenberg
Tribune Reporter

http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/business04/062804_business_microtek.shtml

For others, it is a hopeful hint of the state’s future potential in the multibillion-dollar microsystems and nanotechnology industries. Those two fields could revolutionize the global marketplace and erase our memories of opportunities lost, said Steve Walsh, founding past president of the Micro And Nanotechnology Commercialization Educational Foundation, an Albuquerque-based international group focused on the technologies.

"People all over the world are looking to use these technologies to redefine existing products by putting them in everything from clothing to computer chips to manufactured goods to cars," said Walsh, also a professor in the University of New Mexico Anderson Schools of Management. "Through these technologies, any state can suddenly jump back into these markets, even if they missed their shot at it in the past."

Microtechnology is a science that deals with products the size of microns. For scale, a micron is about 1/100th the width of a human hair. Nanotechnology is a science that deals with products the size of nanometers. One nanometer is the equivalent of about 10 hydrogen atoms in a line. There are 1,000 nanometers in a micron.

The two sciences add functionality to products. Levi’s Dockers pants, for example, have a nanotechnology coating that repels water and water-based compounds, making them spill-proof. Some luxury cars use microsystems sensors to adjust temperature, seat level and steering to an individual’s preferences instantly.

In the past five years, markets for micro and nano products have grown at a rate of about 20 percent a year, and many experts expect that trend to continue well into the future, Walsh said.

"People see these technologies as the next engine of the world economy," Walsh said. "New Mexico is growing many resources that could put us ahead in that game. I think it’s exceptionally important that the state takes advantage of that, while the door is still open."

From global to local

Experts at New Mexico’s two national labs have given the state a substantial leg up in both technologies, a major factor in Small Times Magazine’s decision to rank the state third in its top 10 list of hot spots for the growing sectors, the magazine said.

Sandia and Los Alamos have been working with and inventing new uses for micro and nanotechnology since they first became buzz words in the early 1990s, developing them for nuclear weapons security, biological and chemical sensing devices, and medical equipment for doctors and soldiers in combat.

The Department of Energy sees that work as critical, and is building two huge resources in New Mexico to help it grow: The $462 million Microsystems and Engineering Sciences Applications project, and the $74 million Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, said Steve Martin, deputy director for national security and sensors at Sandia. MESA is housed at Sandia, and CINT is based at Sandia, with a satellite office in Los Alamos.

"I think there’s going to be some really positive economic business opportunities from these centers," Martin said. "A few companies are already sprouting up, and we’re doing everything we can to keep them here. Other infrastructure is also popping into place that will hopefully make it easier for them to stay and draw more companies here."

Both facilities are already running in limited fashion at the labs but will move into new buildings in the next few years. MESA broke ground in August 2003 and is set for completion in 2011. CINT broke ground in May and is set for completion in 2006.

Their goal is to provide tools and experts to advance the two sciences and keep the United States and New Mexico at the forefront of the new economic wave. They are also designed to help the private sector gain access to those resources in an effort to spur new business development, Martin said.

"We’ll have people coming from all over the world to use facilities at MESA and CINT," said Mike Skaggs, president of the Next Generation Economy Initiative. "The next step, though, is to find ways to keep them here – and draw their manufacturing to the state."

New companies, new toys

New Mexico already has a few nano and micro small-business success stories under its belt, mostly created from technology spun out of the labs, Skaggs said.

One of the strongest advantages Albuquerque has – outside of the labs – is Albuquerque TVI. The community college is quick to adapt and customize itself to meet the needs of industry. It has tailored programs to fill the pipeline with microsystems technicians, and can easily design new programs as companies come into the area, Skaggs said.

"TVI is just fantastic at getting these training programs up and running," Skaggs said. "They should be proud. Recently they were even recognized as a national microsystems training center by the National Institute for Science and Technology."

Still, an educated work force alone isn’t enough to put New Mexico on top of the nanotechnology pile, Skaggs said.

Companies that hope to manufacturer here need a fabrication plant outside of the national labs – one they can use to make limited product runs, and eventually, bigger product runs for global markets, he said.

Last year, UNM, NextGen and the federal Economic Development Administration came together in Albuquerque to meet that need. They built a $2 million 1,000 square-foot clean room and public-private microsystems fabrication plant at the university, which some Albuquerque companies are already using, Skaggs said.

"Our goal is to grow that from 1,000 square feet to 3,000 square feet, which would mean we could add a lot more equipment," Skaggs said. "The markets are finally starting to firm up again for our businesses – after the downturn of the past few years – and we think there’s going to be a real boom in the demand for manufacturing at this fab."

Paul McWhorter, chief technology officer at MEMX Inc., a Sandia microsystems spinoff in Albuquerque, says the private fab is and will continue to be a huge asset for his company.

"There’s great technology at the national labs, but to get that technology into industry you really have to have places outside the labs where you can make things," McWhorter said. "If you combine the technology at the labs with more infrastructure like that, you really have the building blocks for technology development and economic breakthroughs."

MEMX started off in the telecommunications sector, but had to morph to other products when the telecommunications and Internet sectors collapsed in early 2001. Since then, the company has focused on three areas: national security, medical and wireless devices, McWhorter said.

"We’ve survived the business nuclear winter, and in the last six months we’ve really started to see signs of life again in high tech in general," he said. "Many of the startup microsystems companies went out of business in the past three years. Those that survived mostly switched direction – and they’re all getting ready to thrive again. The business community is looking much brighter."

Paul Shirley, CEO of Qynergy Corp. in Albuquerque, says he also sees the sector turning around. His company designs and manufactures power sources for tiny microsystems and nanotechnology devices.

"I think it’s coming back – of course you’re talking to the world’s leading optimist," Shirley laughed. "There are some very nice opportunities opening up, but at the end of the day we still have a lot of issues to address if we want to really open up new markets."

Realistic thinking

One of the biggest gaps facing the state is the lack of a pool of educated entrepreneurs and business talent that can drive technologies from the labs to the private sector, McWhorter said.

"Scientists and engineers are very enamored by elegant technology, and they’re very drawn to that in micro and nano tech," McWhorter said. "When you get to a business, though, a businessman really doesn’t care about that – he cares about cost and sales. He wants a solution to his problem and doesn’t particularly care whether it’s a modern technology or something that’s 15 years old."

Another problem is access to investment capital. In the past few years, more venture capital companies have opened offices in New Mexico, but the state still lags behind most other places in the country. Also, many small companies don’t know what sort of funding they should work with when they start out, Shirley said.

"It’s a very complicated issue," he said. "People quickly talk about not having enough capital here, but they often don’t know what they need. There are a lot of options, such as bank loans, venture capital, angel investments, and not every solution is right for every company."

UNM is investigating some strategies to help businesses address these problems, but implementing them may be a year or two off, said Shirley, who is working with the university in his role as chairman of the Next Generation Economy Initiative.

"It’s amazing how much of this comes back to the educational system," Shirley said. "At the end of the day we have to find a way to align our universities and community colleges to be the leaders in this area and plant the seeds of entrepreneurship early."

UNM’s Anderson Schools of Management have worked on technology entrepreneurship programs for many years, but finding technologies for them to manage has been a challenge, Shirley added.

"The thought is that entrepreneurship should be less about putting these classes in the business school and more about putting them into other departments of the university," Shirley said. "We need to teach the scientists and engineers that business opportunities are out there, and show them what they can do to make them happen."

If the pieces fall in place and the sector takes off, New Mexico could see thousands of new jobs in the next 10 years, Walsh said.

Those jobs pay well and are in a stable field. Technicians straight out of TVI start from $15 to $17 an hour. Engineers out of UNM start at $20 to $25 an hour, Shirley added.

"It’s a matter of time, but to have talent in both nanotechnology and microsystems is huge," Skaggs said. "We’re going to see the deployment of microsystems quickly. Nano is a little further behind, but it’s coming along. Locally the two could bring in billions of dollars. That cluster could bring huge value to the state – and finally fill at least the some of the void that Microsoft left behind."

More microtech: The tiny world of microtechnology is getting a big boost http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/news04/062804_news_micro.shtml