Phive Plasma Technologies and Dublin City University has signed an innovate license agreement for breakthrough plasma technology developed in the university. The agreement marks the end of a process where, and experienced entrepreneur, Bernard Hensey, embedded himself with the development team led by Dr Bert Ellingboe in the university and has developed a successful start-up technology company in the advanced materials area.
The new technology allows the use of UHF Plasmas over very large areas and will allow a breakthrough in the thin film solar panel, large display and semiconductor markets. The technology was developed by Dr Bert Ellingboe a world leader in plasma source design with experience in IBM, Varian, Lam Research and leading worldwide research establishments. The project was supported by Enterprise Ireland.
The license agreement marks a new approach pioneered in DCU where an experienced business person developed and financed a business model around a concept technology and in conjunction with the university was able to win the first customer. This allowed the university to test and maximize the return of research funding and allowed the entrepreneur to test the business model without having to spend large amounts on development facilities. Commenting on the approach, Richard Stoke, President DCU Invent said, “DCU’s National Centre for Plasma Science and Technology (NCPST) works on fundamental research inspired by the challenges posed by multi-national companies based in Ireland and elsewhere. Phive is the latest of several exciting spin-outs from NCPST which are competing in international markets. From experience we know that working with seasoned entrepreneurs is the best way to move the technology from the lab to the market. We are actively seeking more opportunities to work with experienced Irish entrepreneurs to exploit DCU’s wide range of technologies”.
Comment on behalf of Phive, Bernard Hensey CEO, said “The ability to work closely with Bert Ellingboe and with DCU allowed Phive to match the technology to the correct customer requirements using a proof of concept funded by Enterprise Ireland. This allowed Phive to use our funding and resources to focus on understanding our customer needs and developing a sales strategy that has been successful at winning our first customer”.
ABOUT PHIVE – Phive Plasma Technologies is a Dublin based technology company that specialised in providing advanced plasma sources for the PV solar market. Phive’s patented breakthrough technology allows customers in the solar industry deposit silicon at much higher rates using VHF and UHF plasmas. This allows Phive customers to significantly reduce manufacturing costs and increase product performance.