FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 1, 2008
Ekips Technologies, Inc. Announces Support for Development of
CoolEpiTM Lasers
NORMAN, OKLA, (July 1, 2008) – Patrick McCann, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer at Ekips Technologies, announced today that The Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) through its Oklahoma Nanotechnology Applications Program (ONAP) has awarded Ekips Technologies $350,252 to support work focused on the development of its CoolEpiTM laser fabrication technology.
CoolEpi is a proprietary thin film semiconductor fabrication technology that enables nearly optimal heat dissipation from the active region of a diode laser. The three-year ONAP award will be used to apply this technology to the development of mid-infrared lasers thus enabling their operation without bulky and expensive cryogenic cooling systems. An immediate benefit will be significant reductions in the size and cost of Ekips’ Breathmeter™ product. Additionally, the CoolEpi technology to be developed can be applied to the fabrication of other diode laser technologies.
According to Dr. McCann, the improved mid-infrared lasers made possible by developing this technology is the next key step in making the Breathmeter instrument the industry standard in the emerging field of medical diagnostics through measurement of exhaled biomarkers. Ekips has already conducted extensive research showing that the Breathmeter can reliably measure exhaled nitric oxide (NO) as well as other gas phase biomarkers that are promising candidates for early cancer detection. This new award from OCAST helps to position Ekips as a commercial provider of user-friendly breath analysis products.
About Ekips Technologies, Inc.
Ekips Technologies, Inc., develops, manufactures and
markets lasers and laser-based systems. The company is the
beneficiary of research grants from the National Science
Foundation, National Institutes of Health, the United States
Department of Agriculture and the Oklahoma Center for the
Advancement of Science and Technology. For more information,
visit www.ekipstech.com.
