Piñon Technologies, Inc. is an early stage technology company formed in 2007 in Austin, TX, to commercialize applications around its fundamental, patent-protected nanowire technology. Piñon’s process and materials offer substantial advantages over alternative technologies, enabling several high-value applications. Although there are a variety of alternative synthetic approaches, the ability to scale to large volumes of free standing nanowires while concurrently controlling and tuning their properties has been elusive until now. Piñon’s low-temperature, solution-based process enables large-scale production with the ability to functionalize the nanowire surfaces during the reaction process. No clean room or ultrahigh vacuum conditions are required. The process is well characterized and repeatable, and can be used to fabricate nanowires that are dispersible in solvents with tunable size and composition. To date, the process has been used to produce silicon, germanium, GaAs, InAs, GaP, InP, ZnS, ZnSe, and ZnTe nanowires. Piñon’s process also works for making nanoparticles, for which it also has issued and pending patents on materials and devices.

Piñon has made a variety of devices based on these novel materials, including light emitting diodes for displays and general illumination, photovoltaics, transistors, chemical sensors, non-volatile memory, birefringent filters, catalysts, and bio tags. Research and discussions with industrial partners are on-going to determine the best commercialization strategy for the Company.

Piñon’s process is based on technology developed in Professor Brian Korgel’s laboratories in the Chemical Engineering Department of the University of Texas at Austin. Korgel has been a pioneer in the field of nanomaterials chemistry with over 100 publications on the topic and he is one of the most highly cited nanomaterials researchers in the world. Furthermore, he has a track record of technology transfer and commercialization of fundamental, academic research. Prior to Piñon, his research led to the formation of InnovaLight in 2002 – a venture backed start-up now located in Santa Clara, CA, focused on applications of printable silicon nanocrystal inks. Through a combination of early federal SBIR and STTR Phase I and Phase II grants and private investment, InnovaLight has grown into a leader in the field. Amongst its many accolades, InnovaLight was selected for a Technology Pioneer Award with the World Economic Forum in January 2006 and a Red Herring R&D 100 Award in May 2007.