| Dr. Beer: JMAR Technologies was founded in 1987 and quickly became an expert in a number of laser-based applications and advanced photonics work. This also led to using particular lasers as the source to create laser plasma for generating X-rays. JMAR represents a technology base that includes laser-based photonics and X-ray processes. In the early 1990s, it was expected that the semiconductor industry, which had been fabricating computer chips with optical processes, would have to shift to X-ray processes due to the feature sizes getting smaller and smaller. Smaller feature sizes take less space, less power, and actually operate faster. So, as the features on the chip were going from 16 megabits, to 64 megabit, then down to 128, JMAR was positioned with the intellectual property, as well as patents and patent protection, to be the supplier of X-ray lithography systems. Unfortunately, the anticipated shift by the semiconductor industry did not happen. Instead, the focus shifted to making improvements to the optical processes, such as looking at EUV as a light source, and more recently, looking at an immersion technique on the bottom lens ' so there has not yet been a shift to X-ray lithography. However, that led JMAR to a number of useful applications that launched commercially viable products that are in development today. One of these is a nano-lithography tool with the ability to fabricate a C-RAM computer chip that can be radiation hardened by using a silicon substrate, not gallium arsenide, which offers huge advantages for military and satellite applications. The current flagship product of JMAR places us in the water industry since we are using our laser technology to develop a product known as BioSentry_. The BioSentry is a continuous, on-line water-quality monitoring device that uses multi- angle light scattering (MALS) technology to identify microorganisms in water. We are especially excited about this product as it fills a void in water quality control. There are currently chemical sensors for air contamination as well as chemical detection in fluids and water, and there are some biosensors for air, but there is virtually nothing on the market that can tell you whether bio-contaminants, such as E. Coli, Giardia, Cryptosporidium, are in water ' in real-time and on a continuous basis. As we introduce BioSentry to the market, the projection for sales and total market estimates are really quite large. The BioSentry fits a particular niche. On the one hand, you have particle counters that give you a feel for the volume of debris in the water, and they frequently cost as much as a BioSentry unit, which runs in the ballpark of $45,000 to $50,000. On the other hand, you have a 'grab sample' that requires taking a sample of the water and submitting it for laboratory analysis with a microscope to actually specify what the contaminant might be. However, there is nothing that provides continuous, real-time warning and quality monitoring capabilities like the BioSentry. We are presently looking for a strategic partner, either a business or financial partner, to assist us in getting market penetration with the BioSentry. Many large companies have been actively getting into the water industry by acquiring smaller companies and emerging technologies. Most of those companies are focused on purification, filtration and those types of applications, rather than diagnostics. BioSentry can accurately be described as a diagnostic tool that is used to monitor the quality of, and provide security for, the water you are working with. Whereas the big companies are into purification and filtration of drinking water, process water, and wastewater, BioSentry provides a complement to these and can be quite useful to them. JMAR is also working with a company named FemtoTrace that has an organic chemical sensor known as READ, Reversal Electron Resting Process technology, which is showing good sensitivity and capability with the mass spectrometer used in the system. One of them has now been placed with a European customer as a beta unit, and we are looking forward to placing more beta units in the near term with READ. Most recently, we've come across a nanoparticle coating technology. This is being developed in conjunction with a Canadian company made up of faculty members from the University of Montreal. They have patented a process that does molecular, ultra-thin coatings. It has the ability to coat substrates of almost any material. There is a laboratory prototype in Montreal that demonstrates this technology. We are in the process of building an alpha/beta unit with JMAR research dollars in our facility in Burlington, Vermont. We expect to then build a second unit for Nanometrix in Montreal. There is also a French company that has already initiated the process of ordering a unit. At a recent IEEE conference, there was a fair amount of interest from both semiconductor companies and companies that produce a number of different coatings. Finally, there are a number of laser-based products, advanced photonics applications and X-ray processes that have led JMAR into microscopy, and that's the last product we will describe ' the X-Ray Microscope (XRM). We are developing the XRM in our San Diego facility. Optical microscopy offers resolution down to a 200- to 300- nanometer range. Direct electron transmission is good around 10 nanometers or below. There is nothing that provides resolution in the mid-range. That's where X-ray microscopy comes in. We are developing a Compact X-Ray Microscope now with our own IR&D money, which will soon be demonstrated for a large company interested in a strategic partnership with us. The X-Ray Microscope sale price, unlike BioSentry that has a unit price of around $50,000, is closer to $1 million. There is a big market for it in medical research, in the tracking of stem cell growth and development and in applications where you are working at the cellular structure and molecular levels. |
