Sergio Cova

MPD story

How a spin-off from the Politecnico was established for producing hi-tech devices with all-italian technologies

For more than twenty years our laboratory at the Department of Electronics and Information (DEI) has been developing microelectronic detectors known as “Single-Photon Avalanche Diodes” (SPAD), the associated electronics and their applications. This activity has reaped outstanding rewards from a scientific viewpoint, but up to a few years ago it had also registered some disappointments as regards interactions with other researchers and laboratories. Let us leave aside the difficulties and the lack of comprehension encountered in Italy in implementing microelectronic devices, which call for flexible, advanced technologies - I’d prefer to refer to the frustration caused us by the simple questions often asked by foreign researchers. For instance, the typical question posed by US colleagues was “These detectors of yours are really interesting; why don’t you set up a new company for purposes of manufacturing them?” Or another frequent comment, coming from European colleagues, was “That result that you published was most interesting, but why you did not think of applying for a patent before publishing it?”

As a matter of fact, in 1988, I had filed for a US patent with the backing of CNR (the Italian National Research Council, in connection with the MADESS Finalized Project), but I did not receive any support on patent exploitation. Moreover, the Politecnico di Milano was totally absent from the issue. At the end of the 90’s, however, the situation changed and I am glad to be able to report on the action by the Politecnico in this area, which, though initially weak, bureaucratic and anything but fast and incisive, fairly rapidly became effective and adequate for dealing with patent matters. The point must be stressed that an institution is practically non-existent in this area if its organization in support of patent application and exploitation is not competitive at international level. But thanks to this evolution, with my colleagues Massimo Ghioni and Franco Zappa we were able, in the year 2000, to apply for two US Patents, one concerning the first monolithic integrated circuit for the operation of a SPAD (iAQC integrated Active Quenching Circuit), and the other regarding a circuit for optimal extraction of the information on photon arrival time.
These patents attracted the attention of PerkinElmer (PKI), an American multinational that, with its Optoelectronics Division in Canada produces the Single-Photon Counting Modules (SPCM) and is an acknowledged world leader in this field.With our iAQC chip it would be possible to replace a set of discrete circuits in the SPCM and obtain significant advantages in terms of performance, size, robustness, and reliability. The initiative of starting a negotiation for the patent licence was taken in 2001 by the PKI product manager, who judged that the acquisition of this licence was both useful and timely in dealing with the ongoing evolution in the market. In fact, there were prospects of noteworthy expansion in the SPCM applications in various fields, especially in new micro-analytical techniques for biomedicine, genetics, biochemistry, and ambient monitoring (DNA and protein analysis, food contamination control, etc.). For such developments, however, it would be necessary to improve the SPCM modules in various respects, reducing size and cost and improving performance, strength, and reliability. After a promising start, in 2002, negotiations came to a standstill because of the attitude adopted by the senior PKI manager, who expected to impose an agreement involving absurdly unfavourable conditions on the Politecnico di Milano.

The time had therefore come to reflect on the situation and the possibilities offered by the policy adopted by the Politecnico di Milano in recent years. The Italian situation in general does not encourage the setting up of companies that manufacture products, and even less companies that produce hi-tech equipment. In our specific case, there were various mitigating factors: first of all, expressions of interest in our work had already been frequent in previous years, but this trend was now obviously growing, as shown by various indications, beginning with the increase in the number of enquiries coming in by e-mail from all over the world. Secondly, we had some very positive experience with our active and effective cooperation with Microgate, a small hi-tech company set up by Roberto Biasi, a PhD graduate in Aerospace Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano. We had worked with Roberto Biasi on the development of the electronics for the adaptive optical system of the great ESO telescopes (ESO = European Southern Observatory, the European astronomy organization).We had appreciated his technical skill and we had seen how a small hi-tech company can work with good results in our context. Regarding the required microelectronic technologies, we were confident because of the excellent co-operation set up in recent years with the IMM-CNR Bologna section and its staff, from the director, Maurizio Severi, to the head of the laboratory, Piera Maccagnani. A strong incentive to set up a new company came to us from Canada, together with an offer of a trading agreement - to be precise from Nick Bertone, who had been product manager for PKI and had then formed a new company, OEC: Optoelectronics Components. Finally, decisive encouragement came to us from the Technology Transfer Office (TTO) of the Politecnico di Milano with the unflagging support and consultancy given us by Riccardo Pietrabissa and Giuseppe Conti.

In 2004, Micro-Photon-Devices Srl (MPD), was set up by the Politecnico di Milano and given the task of making and marketing the photon counting modules resulting from research at the Politecnico and exploiting the patents. Apart from the Politecnico, the participants include the three authors of the patents, Sergio Cova, Massimo Ghioni, and Franco Zappa, the Microgate company, and Roberto Biasi. The work of engineering the first series of modules has now been completed, and a production plan organized in three stages is currently under way. The first pre-series (the Alfa series, with a few dozen modules) has already been distributed among qualified laboratories and big customers for appraisal in May 2005. The second pre-series (the Beta series, comprising about a hundred modules) will be sold to major customers as from September 2005. Mass production proper is planned as from February 2006. The initial reactions of the market have been very favourable, but we know that only time will tell whether we can prove that it is possible to be successful in the international hi-tech market with products entirely made with Italian technologies - in other words, the reward to which we and the Politecnico di Milano aspire.

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