In
much the same way as electricity allowed for the development of
almost every single invention we use in our daily lives, so also
harnessing dispersion forces will make the introduction of an extremely
broad spectrum of revolutionary technologies possible. This fact,
exciting as it is, also requires that we make a choice among the
many possible as to which technologies we intend to focus upon in
our first commercialization phase. Since the TRANSVACER™ device concept
can be adapted to a variety of applications, InterStellar Technologies
Corporation is pursuing a "horizontal approach," to initially
market devices in four areas of main thrust: (1) energy cells, (2)
high speed micromechanisms, (3) revolutionary propulsive systems,
and (4) non-destructive microsurgery tools. As we develop specific
prototypes for these target markets, we will evaluate whether our
financial interests are best protected by marketing our products
directly to customers, by licensing our technologies, or by selling
the technologies.
A
historical parallel: harnessing electricity
In
1801 in Paris, Alessandro Volta demonstrated to Napoleon the process
of electric current generation by means of the battery - a then
novel device the Italian physicist had just invented. By introducing
a reproducible process of electric current production, Volta pulled
electricity away from its beginnings as a little-understood and
unpredictable force of nature and forcefully propelled it forward
to take its well-deserved spotlight as the centerpiece of the newly
born field of electrical engineering.
At
dawn of this twenty first century we are presented with the potential
to harness new forces in much the same way as the nineteenth century
succeeded in controlling electromagnetism. Just as in the case of
electromagnetism, these forces, referred to as dispersion forces,
hold the promise to become the tool to revolutionize the world in
which we live and to improve our quality of life in unprecedented
ways. Consider some of the inventions made possible by the introduction
of electromagnetism: motors, light, telecommunications, computers,
and most health-related tools in the hands of present-day physicians.
Likewise,
dispersion forces in general and the Casimir force in particular
hold a promise: to empower humankind to carry out a technological
revolution as sweeping and complete as that which has led us from
the horse wagon to the Space Shuttle and from medieval barbers acting
as self-appointed surgeons to the laser removal of deadly tumors.
Just as in the case of the electromagnetic force, dispersion forces
can also be controlled, and their action can be exploited to implement
revolutionary designs in a variety of applications as wide as that
documented by the thousands of patents since the days of Thomas
Edison.
>>back to top
InterStellar
Technologies Corporation's "Horizontal Approach"
This
immense potential to shape an endless variety of products across
the whole market landscape is the reason that InterStellar Technologies
Corporation has adopted a horizontal strategic approach. That is,
since dispersion forces can potentially serve as broad a span of
applications as electromagnetism does today and possibly even broader,
we aim to pursue commercialization of our proprietary know-how to
multiple classes of products.
At
the same time, in order to not spread our resources over too wide
a front and to minimize the time needed to get our first generation
products to market, we are focusing our efforts to develop commercial
dispersion force-based devices only upon the following four main
areas of thrust:
1.
Energy storage and production;
2. Breakthrough propulsion;
3. Optical telecommunications and microactuation;
4. Nanosurgery and micromanipulation of biomedical samples.
It is of remarkable relevance to our overall strategy that the centerpiece of all devices in any of the above four areas is an appropriate implementation of TRANSVACER™ (TRANSducer of VACuum enERgy) device technology.
That is, the overwhelming amount of know-how developed by our R&D
effort has horizontal applicability to all areas of main thrust
- a fact that reinforces our vision that our returns will be maximized
by pursuing multiple target markets simultaneously.
>>back to top
InterStellar
Technologies Corporation's target products
As part our company's overall R&D effort, which aims to bring our first profitable products to the commercial arena within the shortest possible time, we have identified four specific commercial goals, representative of the global technological potential of the TRANSVACER™ device concept. At the core of all of the following products there lie both appropriate applications of our company's proprietary dispersion force control technologies and ad hoc implementations of the TRANSVACER™ device:
Let
us analyze each of these technological target products in order.
1. Highly efficient, high energy density,
rechargeable energy cells
The
speculation in principle to utilize the Casimir force field as
a means to store energy was made several years ago. However, this
interesting suggestion has never been pursued in any technological
detail until the present. Furthermore it has been stressed in
the past that no means to "recharge" such a device appeared
to be obvious. These two facts have confined the actual implementation
of "Casimir batteries" exclusively to the world of hypothetical,
although interesting, thought experiments.
InterStellar Technologies Corporation is committed to a vigorous R&D program to commercialize energy production and storage devices based upon dispersion force control. Our research shows that, potentially, our TRANSVACER™-device-based energy products will feature such features
as (1) energy density higher than in comparable chemical batteries,
(2) consolidated energy storage and recharge capabilities, (3)
high efficiency conversion of light into stored energy, (4) largely
improved ability to deliver power to micro- and nano-devices,
(5) "intelligent," addressable battery subunits.
We
expect such product line to be of early interest to sophisticated
customers operating in highly hostile environments and removed
from typical power sources. This would include aerospace, defense, medical, and specialized computer users. At a later phase and as the technology matures, a broader customer base would include users interested in achieving continuous operation of their electrical devices in any environment. In this case, our TRANSVACER™-device-based energy products may represent viable alternatives to all other
energy production and storage devices presently available on the
market.
>>back to target products
>>back to top
2. High speed, no-electricity,
light-driven micromechanisms
Our proprietary information unequivocally suggests that the TRANSVACER™ device concept can be tooled to be the centerpiece of a revolutionary
microactuation technology that is easily and conveniently scalable
down to much smaller sizes than typical macroscopic approaches.
Generally
speaking, it appears certain that the strategy of fabricating
microdevices by simply reproducing existing machines to ever decreasing
scales is bound to at some point become impractical or impossible.
For instance, one of the most difficult problems in microactuation
is delivering electrical power to the device, such as a micromotor.
On the other hand, the TRANSVACER™ device can produce mechanical energy directly from a light beam without at all involving electricity.
This approach allows one to design motors that can work by means
of light and without the need of any power sources or power delivery
systems.
An
interesting implication of our revolutionary technologies is in
its applications to light switching in telecommunications. In
this case, an optical signal is routed to its destination by appropriately
moving a large number of micromirrors located along the optical
line between the sender and the receiver. Of course actuation
speed is an extremely important quality factor for any such device
and the MEMS industry has invested tremendous resources to devise
a variety of competing solutions to this problem.
The reason we believe that the TRANSVACER™ device represents a competitive approach to microswitching in telecommunications is that the light
used to carry the optical signal can also be engineered to drive
the micromirror itself. In our view, the Casimir force holds the
greatest promise to achieve light switching "almost at the
speed of the signal" because the actuation is driven by the
signal itself by using physical processes that occur within the
microdevice and not by involving the transmission of electric
signals between the mirror and external controllers.
Furthermore,
since Casimir force phenomena are actually enhanced on smaller
and smaller scales, our design is scalable to very small device
masses. This reduced inertia can potentially greatly contribute
to further increase microactuation speed.
>>back
to target products
>>back to top
3. Dispersion force-based propulsive
systems
One
of the most revolutionary promises carried by quantum vacuum engineering
is associated with revolutionary propulsive systems, that is,
systems that do not make use of any of the typical chemical or
electrical processes presently used to generate thrust in the
atmosphere or in space.
From
its founding, InterStellar Technologies Corporation has been associated
with revolutionary propulsive research and this continues to be
one of our active areas of commitment. In this respect, we are
interested in propulsive concepts to be utilized both in attitude
control systems and as main thrusters. Any improvement in either
subsystem immediately translates into increasing the lifetime
of a space vehicle, which in turn may make the difference between
being able to fly a particular mission or not.
Generally
speaking, the great advantage of quantum vacuum engineering in
aerospace applications is represented by the fact that the zero-point-field
is ubiquitous. Therefore, one can hope to greatly reduce the overall
mass of a wet propulsive system by making appropriate use of the
zero-point energy.
Our
aim in this field is to commercialize a range of propulsive systems,
spanning from those exploiting revolutionary implementations of
traditional approaches, to entirely new concepts in space propulsion.
At the end of this developmental process, our final goal is of
course to bring to market realistic fuel-free propulsive systems
that will allow for measurable progress in the performance of
aircraft and space vehicles.
>>back
to target products
>>back to top
4.
Non-destructive microsurgery tools
The
same forces that act between inorganic surfaces also act in a
decisive manner between biological surfaces. Consequently, we
are developing Casimir force-based tools to act on biological
materials for a variety of purposes. The fact that our proprietary
technologies allow us to control the Casimir force translates
into the ability to design devices to manipulate biosamples without
contact with the tool itself.
Along
these lines, we intend to decisively enter the field of nanosurgery
by introducing tools that will act inside the human body on a
cell-by-cell basis. Although the notion of injecting microrobots
inside the human body for sensing purposes is already spreading,
cellular surgery inside the human body is presently unexplored.
The aim of InterStellar Technologies Corporation is to develop
Casimir force-based nanosurgery tools for the physician in need
to remove or destroy individual cells as well as to deliver medication
to individual cells in the human body.
These
tools under development will bring revolutionary progress, for
instance, to the field of nanosurgical treatment of individual
cancer cells identified via already existing microsensors. When
contrasted with the presently existing options for traditional
tissue removal or radiation therapy, our Casimir force-based approach
clearly represents a leap in the surgical treatment of disease
as great as that made possible by the introduction of ether anesthesia
in 1846.
>>back
to target products
>>back to top
Our
business model
While
we continue our thrust to prototype the four technologies described
and to increase our already existing intellectual property portfolio,
we plan to retain flexibility in the way our best interests will
be pursued in each of the areas of major thrust we have identified.
Therefore, depending on a variety of circumstances, we will make
from case to case the decision to either commercialize our technologies
directly to customers, to license the technologies we developed
to other companies, or to sell our technologies to other entities.
>>back to top
|
