El-Mul Receives Frost & Sullivan Award for Carbon Nanotube Electron Sources

WEBWIRE – Thursday, November 27, 2008

Leading global research firm recognizes E-Beam
On-a-Chip™ platform with European Technology
Innovation of the Year Award for 2008.

YAVNE, ISRAEL (27 November 2008) – El-Mul Technologies has been awarded Frost & Sullivan’s European Technology Innovation of the Year Award for its E Beam On-a-Chip™ platform, which uses vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as electron sources for a variety of applications.

The 2008 Frost & Sullivan Award spotlights E Beam On-a-Chip™ as cold field emission sources for SEM, TEM and FIB instruments used in analytical labs and semiconductor manufacturing. El-Mul is testing a prototype device, expected to result in a paradigm shift for the industrial manufacture of electron sources.

“El-Mul’s patented approach combines high E-beam brightness with a narrower energy spread for near-laminar results,” cites Frost & Sullivan senior research analyst Krishnakumar Srinivasan. “E-Beam On-a-Chip™ is especially attractive as a way to dramatically reduce energy consumption in many devices that currently use E beams.”

“We’re very pleased and grateful for Frost & Sullivan’s recognition of our unique success in engineering CNT-based electron sources,” said El-Mul Technologies CEO, Silviu Reinhorn. “This Award further strengthens our position as the technology leader in a challenging field. Our researchers and engineers have worked hard to bring E Beam On-a-Chip™ to testing stages, and we thank them for a job well done. We’ve now got an outstanding opportunity to bring this platform to even broader applications and markets.”

“The actual potential of the technology is well beyond the currently cited electron microscope sector,” Srinivasan adds. “There is a huge market potential for this technology.”

E-Beam On-a-Chip™ utilizes the unique electrical and mechanical properties of CNTs, which make excellent cold field emission electron sources. El-Mul’s platform is a low-energy electron generator of well-characterized fine beams as well as high-current broad beams. It is aimed at bringing new capabilities to electron microscopy, gas ionization and X-ray tools, sensors, LEDs, flat panel displays and other applications.

Srinivasan notes, “Over the long term, a growing market for El-Mul’s devices will be found either in distinct, off-the-shelf solutions for chosen application domains, or a generic line of E-Beam system-on-chip devices that can be customized directly by a customer to meet the needs of a specific application.”

El-Mul Technologies is recognized today as a leading solutions provider for nanotechnology toolmakers, and has pioneered nanoscale devices since 1999. El-Mul designs, integrates and manufactures electron and ion detection solutions for a wide variety of industries and research environments.