ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITY
AND INDUSTRIAL AFFILIATES PROGRAM
MNTL spin-off company EpiWorks , a leading provider of compound semiconductor epitaxial wafers , was purchased by II-VI Inc . in early 2016 for $ 49 million . By the end of the year , the company announced a major expansion of its Champaign production facility that will quadruple its wafer-making capabilities . In addition to substantial epitaxial wafer production space , the new cleanroom will house a state-of-the-art wafer characterization and test laboratory . This aggressive expansion enhances EpiWorks ’ leadership position in the global compound semiconductor industry , supporting the performance and volume requirements for several key components that enable multiple growing markets . These include InP and GaAs-based optoelectronic communication components for cloud computing and datacenters , VCSELs for 3D sensing , and next-generation wide-bandgap devices for 5G wireless infrastructure .
EpiWorks was founded in 1997 by ECE alumni David Ahmari ( PhD 1998 ) and Quesnell Hartmann ( PhD 1998 ), along with their doctoral advisor Professor Greg Stillman , to commercialize novel material deposition techniques and designs for high-performance III-V epitaxial devices that they developed at MNTL .
Bioengineering doctoral student Anurup Ganguli , a member of Professor Rashid Bashir ’ s group , received a $ 150,000 first prize in the Student Technology Prize for Primary Healthcare competition administered by Massachusetts General Hospital through its Ambulatory Practice of the Future initiative . Ganguli and his research team developed a novel technology for rapid detection of infectious diseases like HIV , hepatitis B & C , and Zika virus in all primary-care settings . The team will use the prize money to accelerate the development of their diagnostic tool , which collects a patient ’ s blood sample with a simple finger prick , making it an affordable option in resource-limited countries .
Ganguli and his research team developed a novel technology for rapid detection of infectious diseases .
Working at MNTL , the research team ( left to right ) of Akid Ornob , Anurup Ganguli , Tanmay Ghonge , Greg Damhorst , and Professors Rashid Bashir and Brian Cunningham developed a diagnostic tool that detects infectious diseases with superior and minimal sample processing compared to conventional techniques .
MNTL | 14 | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign