Alberta launches centre in Edmonton to market nano and micro inventions

"There hasn't been enough spending towards productization and commercialization," said Ken Brizel, CEO of the Alberta Centre for Advanced Micro and Nanotechnology Products.

"This is brand new. This gives capability to all the startups and entrepreneurs as well as larger corporations."

Brizel said there are already 40 companies and 200 researchers working in the field in Alberta, all looking to have their work brought to market.

"There's a lot of work going on," he said.

ACAMP is a joint initiative among government, industry and academe, supported by an $11.5-million federal-provincial grant.

Doug Horner, Alberta's technology minister, said the goal is to capture two per cent - or $20 billion - of the global micro and nanotechnology market in the next 12 years.

"This takes our well-planned investments and takes the sector to a new level," said Horner. "ACAMP will support the people, the businesses and the ideas so that we can give new products a running start."

The province has already invested $130 million in the sector, which deals with ultra-tiny chips and products for a wide range of fields, including fibre optics, sensors, and triggers for car airbags.

Rona Ambrose, the federal intergovernmental affairs minister, said Canada also wants a piece of a field expected to employ seven million people around the world within the next decade.

"Having the ability to cost-effectively develop innovative ideas is vital," said Ambrose in a speech.

She also couldn't resist taking a dig at the Alberta government, which has enjoyed multibillion-dollar surpluses for years and announced Tuesday it was putting $2.5 billion under the metaphorical mattress because it wasn't sure what to spend it on. The province is putting up two-thirds of the $11.5-million grant.

"If you wonder why the province of Alberta is investing more than the federal government I would just ask you to look at the size of each of our surpluses. Then you'll know why I'm using the Bic pen and he (Horner) is using the fancy silver pen," she said to laughter.

Craig Milne, operations manger of the company Aqua Screen, said they are working with ACAMP to develop a water-testing device that can be carried in one hand and can quickly check for bacteria in a sample of water.

"You put the water sample in a keypad, put it in the device and press the button and it will instantly tell you whether there's bacteria present and whether the water is safe to drink," he said.

"That would save the (24-hour) culturing process that's necessary right now to detect bacteria."

Shaheel Hooda of Optilume said they are working on LED (light emitting diode) street lighting technology that would feature lights with 100,000 hours of life - five times the lifespan of a traditional bulb.

"You avoid the necessity of a crew having to go out in a bucket truck, getting up onto their ladder and pulling out a light bulb every three or four years, which typically costs anywhere from $800 to $1,000 each time," he said.

One municipality, he said, is looking at using Optilume to replace 80,000 streetlights to save more than $15 million a year in energy and maintenance costs.

Rae Purvis of Scanimetrics said they are pioneering a new way to cut costs on the expensive process of semiconductor testing.

Semiconductors are usually tested by a series of needles that surround the chip, he said.

"What we've been able to do is do that with a non-contact wireless technology that adds tremendous efficiencies and lower cost," Purvis said.

"A chip today can cost up to $100 million from design through to marketplace. We can reduce that cost by up to half."