Innovation as a constant task

Nanosurf from Liestal was one of the first companies to be awarded the CTI Start-up Label 15 years ago, and it has subsequently developed a typical Swiss SME technology. Today, Nanosurf has more than 50 employees and has established itself as a leading provider of easy-to-use atomic force microscopes (AFM) and scanning tunnelling microscopes (STM).

Robert Sum, one of the three co-founders and former CEO, gave the keynote speech at the CTI Micro/Nanoevent. His focus was on the need for constant innovation.

Although Nanosurf’s microscopes are pure high tech, the market is very competitive. “There is a real price war in the market,” Sum said. As a Swiss company, Nanosurf is not in a position to win this price war, so the company has to develop new leading products for selected markets.

Sum realised this in 2008 and stepped down as CEO of Nanosurf in order to focus his activities on the development of new products. “This has allowed us to manage innovation,” he commented.

The Nanosurf founder presented several new products in Basel as a result of this strategy. One example is FluidFM, which combines the positional accuracy and force sensitivity of Nanosurf’s FlexAFM atomic force microscope with the unique possibilities of nanofluidics from Swiss start-up Cytosurge to provide a new level of control and application possibilities in single-cell biology. He also presented ARTIDIS, a new tool for nanomechanical tissue diagnostics, such as breast, cartilage and retina tissue.

Other speakers at the event told similar stories. Abilis Systems, founded in 2004, makes integrated circuits for the digital TV market and has already shipped more than 100 million units. Just like Nanosurf, Abilis presented several innovative new products, including an essential component for cost-effective IP distribution of satellite television to the home – the first low-noise block down-converter (LNB) to incorporate eight-channel satellite-to-IP bridging technology.

Even very young start-ups presented new projects at the poster session, including credentis, Eulitha, Motilis, greenTEG and FemtoTools.

Perhaps the most stunning advanced high-tech product presented at the event came from MESA Imaging – a cane for blind people that warns about approaching obstacles. MESA integrated a time-of-flight camera in the cane, which is able to measure the distance between the cane and obstacles such as traffic signs, branches or fences. If the user gets too close to these obstacles, the handle starts vibrating. The company presented several prototypes at Basel; currently, it is looking for commercial partners and investors to complete development and start commercialisation.

MESA’s cane was developed in a CTI project, just like the other innovations mentioned here. This shows how many promising micro and nano projects are supported by CTI, and speakers at the event were very satisfied with the level of support from the CTI. Nanosurf’s Sum, for example, highlighted two advantages: the application process is simple and IP is handled in a defined manner.