With a goal of manufacturing nanomaterials for photovoltaic panels and other electronic gear, Lancaster-based Illuminex expects a $2 million equity investment that will allow the start-up to grow.

“We have a term sheet on the table,” says CEO Joe Habib. He expects a first installment of $400,000 with the balance drawn down over time.

With research contracts in hand from NASA and help from the state’s Office of Energy and Technology Deployment for new equipment, the firm has received a notice of allowance for patents for its platform technology, which produces nanowire arrays that can be used in solar panel arrays as well as in heat pipes to cool sensitive electronics and computer equipment.

“We’re materials based,” says Habib. “We want to become a company to supply functional nanomaterials, as opposed to nanomaterials like carbon nanotubes, which don’t do anything on their own.  It’s a bottom-up approach--we grow them, so there are no wasted materials, and a smaller amount of  silicon is needed to make solar cells.” He envisions the firm rolling out “sheets or spools of  photovoltaic nano-materials," ready to be manufactured into solar cells.

Formerly housed in space at Millersville University, Illuminex now leases space in Burle Business Park, the former RCA manufacturing site.  It has hired five staffers from Penn State’s nanoscience program, and Habib expects to bring total employment to 10 by the end of 2010.

Source: Joe Habib, Iluminex
Writer: Chris O’Toole