Michael Kozicki wants to make sure people can have all of their information at their fingertips any time, anywhere.
The technology he is working on may do just that, allowing users to carry a terabyte of data in the palm of their hand. That's 1,000 gigabytes, four to eight times the capacity of a common personal computer hard drive.
As founder, chairman and chief technology officer of Scottsdale-based Axon Technologies Corp., Kozicki is pursuing a form of nanotechnology that could become the successor to the ubiquitous flash memory, which is available in everything from cell phones and memory sticks to laptop computers and iPods.
His device is called programmable metallization cell memory, or PMC. Like flash memory, it is nonvolatile, which means it can hold data even when it is not hooked up to a power source.
Where PMC differs from flash memory is its structure. Kozicki's memory cell is based on nanoionics, a science that allows ion bridges to be formed in the memory cells that hold the data. Because the memory is working on a scale of nanometers, which are the equivalent of one-
billionth of a meter, the chip can hold significantly more information than flash drives, he said.
"We could easily see a terabyte or more in the future," he said.
Although Kozicki is building up to that level with his test chips, the physics go beyond anything on the market, he said.
"We're continuing to develop new twists and turns," he said.
As a result, Axon has built a stable of patents that includes many facets of the device's construction. The company received its 27th patent earlier this month, allowing PMC to be manufactured from materials common to flash drives.
Kozicki, who also is director of the Center for Applied Nanoionics at Arizona State University, said the latest patent is a key to potential widespread adoption of the new technology.
All this could mean entry into a market where the dominant flash memory system is expected to account for $15.2 billion in sales in 2008, according to El Segundo, Calif.-based market research company iSuppli Corp.
For Axon's technology to gain mainstream acceptance, it needs to be built out of something the semiconductor industry already is using, said Don Hardenbrook, owner of Hardenbrook Consulting, who spent nearly 20 years as an engineer and project manager at Intel Corp.
"I think that accelerates the adoption," he said. "As a manufacturer, Intel or anyone else, they don't have to change their process, and that's huge."
Decreasing the physical size of memory is always a goal of the semiconductor industry, but flash memory has certain constraints. With PMC, those limitations could be defeated, Hardenbrook said.
Producing more memory with more capacity makes it cheaper for the manufacturer and, ultimately, for the end user. "If you can keep shrinking it, you get efficiencies in everything you do," Hardenbrook said.
Axon does not intend to manufacture the devices itself. It will license the technology to other companies, making it cheaper and easier for them to adopt it, Kozicki said.
The company already has licensed its technology to three manufacturers. Micron Technology Inc., a maker of flash memory devices and semiconductors for a variety of applications, and German chip-maker Qimonda AG are two of them. Micron has been linked to a possible purchase of Qimonda. Kozicki did not name the third licensee.
Having a significant patent portfolio is a way for the company owning the technology to maximize its use and, ultimately, its income, said David E. Rogers, an attorney specializing in intellectual property at Squire Sanders & Dempsey LLP in Phoenix.
"Typically, the more patents a company has, the more market or product segments it has protected," he said. That makes it difficult for competitors to develop products that do not infringe on the patents in a company's portfolio, Rogers said.
Gerald L. Fellows, an attorney with Greenberg Traurig LLP in Phoenix, said locking up the market with patents can be a good business strategy.
"You cover the core technology that drives profitability," he said.
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