Canon will add the Texas-based firm’s technology to its efforts to develop nanoimprint technology, which Canon has been working on since 2004. The two firms have been working together on the mass production of Molecular’s Jet and Flash Imprint Technology since 2009 – a partnership which led to the purchase.
Mark Melliar-Smith, CEO of Molecular Imprints, said: “After establishing a business alliance with Canon four years ago to provide a technologically enabled low cost nanolithography solution to the semiconductor industry, I’m very pleased to acknowledge the tremendous progress we have achieved in the pursuit of this goal. Based on this success, the merger was a natural next step for our companies.”
The merger will not be the end of the Texas firm, however. David Gino, chief operating officer and next CEO of Molecular Imprints, said the agreement will lead to “the spin out creation of a new company that will keep its original ‘Molecular Imprints’ name and have the advantage of a tremendous jump start by retaining key personnel and rights jointly owned with Canon to MII’s IP portfolio, along with multiple system platforms that are designed to support the growing need for nanoscale patterning in consumer electronics and biomedical applications.”
