Although he lives in New Mexico, Iosil Energy Corp. CEO  Earl Fuller  feels right at home in Groveport where his company has started to develop a pilot plant that will produce polysilicon, a raw material for solar cells.Iosil looked at sites in several states, including New Mexico where it is based, but felt Ohio and Groveport were the best spot for the $13.5 million facility, Fuller said. State and local financial incentives, Central Ohio’s high-quality work force, a favorable building lease and a business climate friendly to renewable energy companies clinched the deal.

“The reality,” Fuller said, “is that we found the enthusiasm and opportunity to be greater in Ohio. It’s nice to be wanted.”

The state has awarded Iosil a 50 percent job creation tax credit worth an estimated $254,500 over six years. Fuller said the company also has been offered a $500,000 business recruitment grant from the state and hopes to qualify for funding from Ohio’s Third Frontier technology development program.

In addition, Groveport will abate 100 percent of the real property tax for Iosil’s 30,700-square-foot facility off Green Point Drive through 2015, said  Jeff Green , the village’s development director.

In return, Ohio and Groveport get a plant that’s expected to employ about 20 people when it goes online in nine to 12 months. Fuller said the facility, which Iosil took possession of in September, will serve as a showcase for customers, investors and suppliers as Iosil tries to build its business.

If all goes well in Groveport, the three-year-old company will be able to take its production of high-purity polysilicon from the pilot stage to commercial-scale manufacturing in the next few years, Fuller said. That would drive the need for a larger plant that could employ an estimated 120 people.

“There’s a ready market to take up our product as soon as we’re ready to manufacture it,” he said, noting that more than 80 percent of the world’s $20 billion-a-year solar industry makes solar cells from silicon.

Iosil will manufacture polysilicon through a process that involves recycling the waste material created during production of silicon wafers for semiconductors and solar cells. The privately held company’s investors – a mix of venture capital firms – acquired the technical rights to the process from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in 2007 and have been developing it at the National Institute for Nanotechnology in Edmonton, Alberta.

Fuller said one of the main reasons Iosil selected Central Ohio for the pilot plant is the region’s ample supply of chemical process engineers and manufacturing managers. The plant will need workers with that expertise and Fuller said he expects wages to average about $80,000 a year because of the high percentage of professionals to be employed .

Such high-paying, professional jobs in manufacturing will help Groveport broaden its business base, Green said in an e-mail to  Columbus Business First .

“Our economy is largely supported by warehousing and distribution,” he said, “so the Iosil project helps us diversify our business base a bit more and demonstrates that Groveport is a great location for more than distribution.”

Fuller said another factor in selecting Groveport was that the building’s owner and manager, Meritex Columbus LLC, offered a high-quality facility that will present well to visitors, investors and suppliers. Iosil is taking about a third of the 116,200-square-foot building with the rest leased by UPS Mail Innovation and HP Products, said  Jill Evans , Meritex’s portfolio manager.

Iosil also has found Ohio’s business climate to be friendly to renewable energy companies, with Fuller saying TechColumbus,  Edison Welding Institute ,  Ohio State University  and others have already been supportive.

It also doesn’t hurt that Ohio legislators in 2008 created a renewable energy standard that requires 0.5 percent of the state’s electricity to come from solar energy by 2025. That seems to have gotten business and government leaders excited about recruiting companies such as Iosil, Fuller said.

“Everybody perks up,” he said, “and welcomes you when they hear a solar business is interested in locating in Ohio.” http://www.bizjournals.com

Lumidigm Receives Frost & Sullivan New Product Innovation of the Year Award for

Fingerprint Biometrics.  

Albuquerque, New Mexico — November 10, 2010 — Lumidigm today announced that the research firm Frost & Sullivan has found Lumidigm to be at the top of its class in fingerprint biometrics product innovations . The 50-year old research firm has awarded the New Product Innovation of the Year Award, Fingerprint Biometrics, North America, 2010, to Lumidigm. According to Frost & Sullivan, Lumidigm’s “innovative technology allows Lumidigm fingerprint sensors to provide highly accurate biometric data even in adverse conditions where traditional fingerprint sensors fail.”

“Lumidigm’s sensors do more to meet performance requirements than the fingerprint sensors of any other vendor surveyed,” relates Raman Monga , industry manager for Frost & Sullivan’s electronics group. “Since they are small, light and compatible, possessing multiple communication interfaces, Lumidigm biometric sensors can be easily integrated into any existing system. The return-on-investment (ROI) of Lumidigm sensors is much higher than that of traditional biometric sensors.”

“For many years now, the promise of biometrics has not been fully realized in large part because conventional biometric technologies rely on unobstructed and complete contact between the fingerprint and the sensor, a condition that is elusive in a world that is wet, dry, or dirty and where users are not all young office workers with great skin who are experienced at using biometrics,” emphasizes Phil Scarfo , Lumidigm senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing. “Frost & Sullivan has recognized that Lumidigm’s more effective solution, based on using multiple spectrums of light and advanced polarization techniques to extract unique fingerprint characteristics from both the surface and subsurface of the skin, provides results that are more consistent, more inclusive and more tamper resistant.”

According to Frost & Sullivan, the biometrics industry averages for False Accept Rates (FAR) and False Reject Rates (FRR) are unacceptably high due to problems with data collection and poor image quality. That’s because, Scarfo explains, traditional technologies rely solely on surface fingerprint characteristics that can be obscured by moisture, dirt or wear. Meanwhile, the “inner fingerprint” lies undisturbed and unaltered beneath the surface. Lumidigm’s multispectral imaging technology combines surface fingerprint information with subsurface fingerprint information and reassembles it in an intelligent and integrated manner, resulting in superior biometric performance.

“While fingerprints should be more convenient, cost-effective, and secure than other forms of authentication, conventional fingerprint sensors simply don’t deliver the real world performance required to meet customer expectations in many applications,” adds Scarfo. “As this award underscores, Lumidigm sensors can be reliably used for getting on a company’s data network, operating a forklift, signing for merchandise, creating major Citizen ID programs and virtually every type of application in which organizations now feel forced to use cards, keys or PINs. Biometrics can finally get beyond the door.” www.lumidigm.com