VentureBeat

Air-conditioning seemed an unlikely topic at the DEMOfall 08 conference. But cutting the cost of air-conditioning is one of the applications of a new chip from Microstaq. Needless to say, it was cool.

The Austin, Texas-based company has designed a micro-machined chip that performs some of the functions in an air conditioner while cutting the costs by 20 percent to 30 percent. The term “micro-machined” refers to a MEMS chip, or micro-electro-mechanical system. That is essentially a chip with tiny mechanical parts fabricated with semiconductor manufacturing technology.

The company designed a MEMS chip that can channel water more efficiently than a typical mechanical device in an air conditioner. Since it is made out of silicon, the MEMS device is more reliable, more responsive, and cheaper to maintain than others.

Microstaq calls its chip a Silicon Extension Valve. The company noted that the Sheraton Hotel, where the DEMOfall 08 conference is being held, had 950 tons of air-conditioning equipment on the roof. With its chip built into air-conditioning equipment, the company said that the hotel could save $122,000 a year in energy bills.

Microstaq has raised a couple of rounds of funding in the tens of millions of dollars. Sandeep Kumar, chief executive, said that the silicon valve opportunity spans multiple industries. Mechanical valves, he noted, amount to a $300 billion a year industry.

The company has no direct competitors but lists Fujikoki Sagoninomiya Danfoss as a secondary competitor. Investors include Yaletown Venture Partners.

One of the solar photovoltaic industry’s biggest problems right now is a lack of polysilicon needed to make their solar cells. Supply shortages aren’t expected to ease up for another couple years; meanwhile, those who do have solar-grade silicon to sell are making money hand-over-fist.

6N Silicon wants to join the fray with a proprietary manufacturing process of its own, which is capable of improving low-grade silicon enough to be of use in solar (but not enough for semiconductors). Its processes are derived from the metals industry, which works in much larger volumes than silicon manufacturers have ever needed to.

If 6N can live up to its promises, there could be some serious pain down the road for the other new silicon-manufacturing plants already being built to satisfy demand. An oversupply is projected within a couple years, which would only be aggravated by a lower-priced offering such as what 6N is promising.

That might sound like great news for the makers of solar cells, the excess supply could hurt in other ways: A sudden burst of low-cost silicon might produce an excess of cheap silicon-based cells. That will pull the carpet from beneath manufacturers that have so far relied on being able to charge a premium, and likely knock some players out of the game.

Other technologies might reduce the amount of silicon needed. Applied Materials is working on a thin-film silicon cell that uses a fraction of the silicon usually needed, while a host of competing non-silicon technologies based on various metals, inks and nanomaterials are also in development. Thin-film cell makers like First Solar and Nanosolar are already on the market, but regular silicon photovoltaics still capture the vast majority of sales.

As for 6N, it hasn’t yet lived up to its hopes of making solar-grade silicon without using the waste matter from semiconductor manufacturing. However, it’s likely to be making its silicon in quantity by 2010, the year projected for the beginning of the supply shift.

The $20 million funding was provided by Good Energies, along with Yaletown Venture Partners and Ventures West. The company, based in Missuaga, Ontario, also recently took on a new CEO from the metallurgical industry.

Cogent Health Solutions, a Vancouver-based provider of computerized systems for managing cancer care, raised $3 million in its first funding round. Yaletown Venture Partners led the deal, joined by angel investors.

Cogent’s Web-based system aims to help cancer, nutrition and counseling specialists better manage the long-term care of cancer survivors, who often face daunting health and lifestyle challenges following cancer treatment that frequently includes surgery and toxic radiation or chemotherapy. The system is designed to track patients regarding follow-up treatment, signs of cancer recurrence, long-term side effects of cancer therapy and quality of life.

Cogent says it is preparing to launch the system with “major U.S.-based healthcare providers,” and it will be interesting to see which big insurers agree to make what is undoubtedly a significant investment for a niche patient population. One of the main problems in adoption of healthcare IT is the fact that return on the investment in terms of healthcare cost savings can take a long time to materialize, and often may flow to other providers if the patient population “churns” frequently. Cogent appears to be betting that their system will offer a substantial improvement to the quality of care for cancer survivors, to the extent that it might convince patients to stay put when they might otherwise change health plans. I’m something of a skeptic on that point, but that would make it no less interesting to be proven wrong.

The company’s announcement is here (hat tip: VentureWire).