What does AmberWave Systems do?
AmberWave Systems bridges the gap between promising research within universities around the world and commercialization of the results of that research. As a materials research company with an intellectual property (IP) business model, the company licenses IP and establishes joint research collaborations to further the development of technology and IP portfolios.

What products and/or types of products do you offer?
AmberWave Systems provides its customers with R&D services, technology transfer and licensing of its IP portfolio, while manufacturing and selling products in small volume within its semiconductor research and fabrication facility. The company provides the semiconductor industry with technologies necessary to continue producing more powerful chips that use less power with minimum increase in manufacturing costs.

How long have you been in business?
The company was spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1998 by an MIT Professor, Eugene Fitzgerald and one of his students, Mayank Bulsara.

What industry(s) does AmberWave concentrate on?
AmberWave Systems’ R&D is initially focused on the semiconductor industry through its strained silicon technology. For the future, new materials are needed to be considered outside of the standard CMOS silicon to help increase performance and reduce power consumption.

Its second technology to develop is Aspect Ratio Trapping (ART), which uses silicon photonics. ART allows manufacturers to combine different materials onto a silicon base, forming chips that use light pulses to carry data, similar to fiber optic technology. The result is increased data speed transmission far faster than today’s systems allow.

Who are AmberWave’s partners?
AmberWave Systems combines its internal R&D efforts with external collaborations. Its partners include universities, technology companies and licensees. Licensees include wafer manufacturers, fabless companies and IDMs.

How many employees do you have?
Currently, nearly 70 percent of the company’s 25 employees have technical backgrounds and are dedicated to technology research work primarily at AmberWave’s corporate headquarters. Out of the 25 employees, 13 are within the research group, nine are PhDs and 14 have post-graduate degrees.

Where are you located?
AmberWave Systems is headquartered in Salem, New Hampshire, and operates a 30,000 square-foot research facility with a Class-10 clean room.

Is AmberWave Systems a private or publicly held company?
AmberWave Systems is a privately held corporation.

Who makes up the company’s current leadership?
Richard J. Faubert, president and CEO
Anthony Lochtefeld, PhD, vice president of research
Bryan Lord, vice president of finance & licensing, general counsel
C. Wade Sheen, PhD, vice president of marketing and business development
Michael Barry, general patent counsel

How is AmberWave Systems financed?
To date, AmberWave Systems has raised more than $91 million in venture funding. As the company matures, fees from licensing its intellectual property portfolio will fund the company’s continued research and development activities.