Frequently Asked Questions
About Nanoco
We are a hi-tech materials company. We make nanomaterials. We are not a display company; we are not a sensor company. Indeed, we do not make any sort of devices beyond those we build at a pilot scale as necessary to enhance our development of novel nanomaterials. Our materials are primarily for use in electronics supply chains which themselves can feed into a number of different market sectors.
Our materials can be used across a wide range of sectors and applications. So in the display sector, literally any device that has a graphical display from a TV to an electronic advertising screen to a mobile phone to a smart watch to a piece of medical / industrial / military equipment to automotive. In the sensing sector, our technology is applicable anyway where a machine or a vehicle or a robot or a building needs to be able to see. The range of markets is extremely wide and the end use applications are potentially huge – both in number and in scale.
It means that we focus on our core competency of nanomaterials. We develop enough knowledge of other parts of the supply chain to be able to interact effectively with them, such as resin systems for deploying quantum dots in display applications or ink systems and basic wafer architecture for sensing materials, but those are not our specialisms. This allows us to focus our capability and resources on those areas in which we truly excel.
Unlike the majority of our competitors who are developing new materials, Nanoco also has the already installed manufacturing capacity to be able to take a new material all the way to mass market production for consumer electronics applications. This means that a customer or potential customer does not then have to search for a production partner to scale what the development partner has created. This capability shortens development cycles and significantly reduces risk for the customer by not requiring technology transfers between different companies. And this in itself then also serves to provide an additional layer of protection for our IP.
Where we are talking about a fully validated material with a locked process and recipe, a production run of a single batch is measured in weeks from start to finish, including multiple quality control checks during and after completion of the process, and including the packaging process (which is itself complex). Batches can be varied in size and we have the option to move to continuous and parallel running to maximize output volumes.
Technology
Nanomaterials are materials with dimensions between around 1 – 100 nm – between 100,000th and 1,000th the width of a human hair. Many nanomaterials have unique optical, electrical, thermo-physical and/or mechanical properties, which can be exploited for a wide range of applications.
Quantum dots (QDs) or semiconductor nanocrystals are semiconductor particles a few nanometres in size with optical and electronic properties that differ from those of larger particles via quantum mechanical effects.
For Nanoco, a platform technology is one that with small modifications can be adapted for use across a wide range of markets, applications and customers. A key attribute of a platform technology is therefore that it does not expose Nanoco to a single product / customer / application risk.
A platform technology is inherently customizable instead of having to be re-built from scratch every time a new application is required.
See our products and market section for examples of the markets implementing quantum dot technology.
As well as offering unique optical and electronic properties depending on their size, shape and composition, the surface of colloidal quantum dots can be functionalised with ligands that allow devices to be made using relatively cheap solution processes, offering a cost benefit over some complementary technologies.
Customers
Ordinarily we deal directly with component manufacturers (such as STMicro) or other electronic materials companies (such as the Asian Chemical Company). We can occasionally deal directly with the final product OEM or Brand but this is extremely rare and tends to be when a very large end product customer is building a completely new supply chain (such as the US Customer).
Within consumer electronics markets it is often the case that customers require confidentiality around their own identity and on the products being sourced. This is why we are often not able to name customers or the end use application. We do disclose as much information as we can to allow investors (and potential new customers) to understand our business, but always taking into account the contractual terms of any commercial relationship.
Our products and the components in which they are incorporated have a wide range of potential applications. They do not necessarily need to be bespoke for any individual specific end use. As a result, they benefit from use cases across multiple customers and applications – as opposed to being a single product for a single customer for a single application.
Furthermore, our products are positioned very early in the supply chain or the device stack – which means we are often remote from the end customer or end product. Asking what the end application is for Nanoco material is like asking what the end application is for all of the silicon wafers made in a wafer fab.
So while this can be frustrating, the scale of the opportunity is already clear in our customers’ investments in the technology, their own scale and the global nature of the electronics supply chains that our materials fit within.
Products
If starting from scratch with a new material and new performance targets, it can take around five years to get to commercial production, or possibly longer:
- Up to two years to get a sufficiently robust proof of concept to move to optimization
- Around two years for optimization and scale up
- A year to move to commercial production scale
The customer also has to do work in parallel and once Nanoco’s material is ready for commercial production, the customer will have to do their own validation and quality checking of their own processes – this can take another two years.
If starting from a pre-existing material that just needs to be slightly modified for a specific customer’s needs, especially if the pre-existing product has already been scale dup, the process can be completed in a matter of months or potential a year or so.
Well publicized examples include: Samsung’s journey to cadmium-free quantum dot TVs which started in 2004 and saw a first TV launch in 2015 (11 years form the start), and our own commercialization of sensing material which the US customer had been working on for a number of years before coming to Nanoco for help in 2018 – ultimately leading to a material product launch in 2023 (around 8 years from the start).
IP and Licensing
Nanoco’s large patent portfolio covers many innovations relating to quantum dots, including synthesis, material composition, surface chemistry, encapsulation, and integration into devices.
See our IP section and our Patents page.
Nanoco is continually generating IP through its R&D activities. Our IP portfolio includes both patents and know-how. Revenue can be generated through the licensing of our technology to global partners.
If you are interested in partnering with Nanoco, please contact us at [email protected] and a member of the team will get back to you. Or visit our Contact page.
The Nanoco management team holds regular presentations via the Investor Meet Company platform, where attendees have the opportunity to ask questions in advance of, or during, the live event.
Existing or potential investors can sign up to the Investor Meet Company platform for free and register their interest in events hosted by Nanoco Group Plc
Investor Meet Company platform