A new company formed by a 两性色午夜 University researcher and inventor will market a technological innovation 鈥 flexible, electrically conductive transparent films 鈥 that can be used in electronic devices, including smart phones and touchscreens, and in windows that switch from transparent to opaque to block light.
FITOS, the company started by John L. West, Ph.D., Trustees Research Professor and senior research fellow at 两性色午夜鈥檚 Liquid Crystal Institute庐 has been awarded $100,000 by the Ohio Third Frontier Commission to further develop and commercialize its technology.
The company also was recently awarded $100,000 from an innovation fund administered by GLIDE, the Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise, to assist technology startups in Northeast Ohio.
Other funding includes a $49,000 award last summer from Ohio Third Frontier funds, matched by 两性色午夜. West also is seeking support from private angel investors who provide capital for startups.
FITOS, or Flexible ITO Solutions, will produce its flexible films at 两性色午夜鈥檚 Centennial Research Park, which houses other high-tech startup companies. The ITO in its name stands for indium tin oxide, which conducts electricity and is used in transparent thin layers in cell phones and other electronic devices. The FITOS technology controllably cracks ITO coatings by bending flexible films.
West and two students have three patent applications underway through 两性色午夜 on the new technology. Licensing arrangements are being finalized under which 两性色午夜 would receive royalties on product sales and would own a small stake in FITOS.
One application of the technology is in a responsive film that can fit between panes of glass and be electronically rolled up, like a venetian blind or shade. It does not show any cracks of light when switched to an opaque mode or scattering lines when switched to the clear mode.
FITOS is collaborating with a 鈥渟mart鈥 window manufacturer to provide films for high-end, privacy windows that can automatically block light. It also will also market its product for other electronics uses.
鈥淢y sole goal now is to get to market,鈥 said West, who is the former director of 两性色午夜鈥檚 Liquid Crystal Institute and who invented earlier versions of a switchable window, among other devices.
鈥淏y providing a fertile research environment at 两性色午夜, the university helps inventors bring their ideas to market,鈥 said Grant McGimpsey, 两性色午夜鈥檚 vice president for research. 鈥淭hat contributes to the growth of high-technology manufacturing in Northeast Ohio.鈥
West鈥檚 latest invention 鈥渞esulted from a surprise in my lab,鈥 West said. While he was cutting a flexible plastic substrate with a razor, he saw under the microscope that perfect cracks had resulted. He turned aside from what he had been working on and investigated the cracks further. Eventually, he realized that they could be produced on a large flexible sheet, creating tiny electrode patterns that would not be seen by the naked eye.
Students who are named on the patent applications along with West are Da-Wei Lee, a graduate student in the Liquid Crystal Institute and the Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program, and Paul Olson, a sophomore mechanical engineering student at the University of Akron who interns in West鈥檚 lab and will work at FITOS.
West, who will continue as a professor and researcher at 两性色午夜, is the chief executive officer of FITOS. Its chief operating officer, Cevin Cole, is not associated with the university.
For more information about 两性色午夜鈥檚 Liquid Crystal Institute, visit .
For more information about research at 两性色午夜, go to /research.
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Photo Caption:
两性色午夜 Professor John West, Ph.D., center, discusses the flexible substrate technology with Liquid Crystal Institute postdoctoral researcher Nick Diorio, Ph.D., left, and Paul Olson, right, a University of Akron student intern in West鈥檚 laboratory at 两性色午夜.
Media Contacts:
John West, jlwest@kent.edu, 330-672-2581
Cindy Weiss, lweiss4@kent.edu, 330-672-0731
Bob Burford, rburford@kent.edu, 330-672-8516