14 September 2011

OPEL selects investment bank GrowthPoint as advisor for ODIS affiliate

OPEL Technologies Inc of Toronto, Ontario, Canada (formerly OPEL Solar International Inc), which makes high-concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) panels and solar tracker systems as well as developing semiconductor devices and processes, has selected GrowthPoint Technology Partners as advisors.

GrowthPoint provides merger & acquisition, fundraising and strategic advisory services to a range of semiconductor, information technology, energy technology and defense contracting companies. For OPEL, it will assist in identifying and evaluating strategic options for value optimization of the proprietary Planar Optoelectronic Technology (POET) semiconductor process developed by US affiliate OPEL Defense Integrated Systems (ODIS Inc) of Shelton, CT. These options may include the full or partial sale of the technology.

“We were impressed with GrowthPoint's outstanding track record of guidance provided to other semiconductor, defense and clean-tech firms,” notes OPEL Technologies’ CEO Leon M. Pierhal. “We are pleased to have GrowthPoint on board in this strategic advisory role to assist in optimizing and monetizing the shareholder value of the POET intellectual property portfolio,” he adds.

POET creates high-performance devices by fusing optical and electronic functions together on a single chip. Specifically, POET is a semiconductor manufacturing process that enables the monolithic fabrication of gallium arsenide (GaAs) integrated circuits containing both electronic and optical elements on a single wafer. Developed over 18 years by chief scientist Dr Geoff Taylor and his ODIS team, POET is protected by numerous patents and patents pending. OPEL says that, offering devices with dramatically lower costs and increased speed, density and reliability, POET could potentially impact a broad range of mobile and server applications with reduced power consumption compared with conventional silicon-based devices.

OPEL says that US Government departments and agencies are developing specific devices using the POET platform (including image sensors and ultra-low-power random access memory), highlighting POET’s potential to address high-speed and low-power applications for commercial and consumer applications, included servers, tablet computers and smartphones. Recently, POET technology was independently validated by BAE Systems (in their fabrication facility) when working transistors were created using the POET platform.

Tags: OPEL CPV

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