Startup Has Big Plans For Micro-Devices.

They're about the size of a grain of sand, but they look huge to investors.

They're the devices developed using Memgen Corp.'s electromechanical fabrication - or EFAB.

It's not just another techno-jargon acronym.

EFAB's inventors and investors believe it could be the next wave of manufacturing. Memgen's proprietary EFAB technology enables the mass production of tiny mechanical and electromechanical devices that could be used to make faster, cheaper, more reliable and more energy-efficient wireless phones, computers, medical devices and a broad range of other technologies.

"EFAB represents a true platform technology, one able to create devices previously impossible, and do so faster and less expensively than before," said Warren Packard, managing director of the venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, "The market opportunity is vast and extremely varied."

Draper Fisher and DynaFund Ventures are among the VCs that invested S11 million in the startup's first round earlier this month.

EFAB technology was first developed in 1997 at USC by Adam Cohen, who went on to form Memgen in August 1999. USC had hired Cohen, an MIT graduate and founder of three tech firms, as a research scientist to focus on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). He came up with the idea for EFAB while working on MEMS and brought in the initial funding for its development.

Memgen now holds the exclusive license for EFAB technology and USC has taken an equity stake in the company.

"In the same way that a machine tool does milling and can build a huge variety of different structures, EFAB will build a huge variety of different things affecting different industries," Cohen said.

The EFAB process could, for example, facilitate the production of tiny devices that' are practical only if large quantities can be produced at low unit costs.

Stacking layers

EFAB has its roots in an industrial process called rapid prototyping. Instead of machining a model from a solid block, rapid prototyping stacks up a series of thin layers - usually made of plastic - that adhere to each other to form a three-dimensional product, usually measured in centimeters.

EFAB creates much smaller objects with layers that are measured in thousandths of millimeters, and the layers are metal rather than plastic.

The process eliminates the need for expensive clean rooms and slashes the time generally needed to manufacture micro-products, Cohen said.

"Memgen's technology represents a new paradigm for the manufacturing of micro-scale devices and will have a major impact on the industry," said Denny Ko, managing director of DynaFund and a Memgen board member.

Ko, who holds a Ph.D. in aeronautics and applied mathematics from Caltech, brings a wealth of tech industry experience - and relationships - to Memgen. DynaFund's portfolio includes a wide range of communications and electronics companies that could conceivably become Memgen customers.

One Memgen customer is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the R&D arm of the U.S. Department of Defense. DARPA funded the development of EFAB at USC and has contracted work out to Memgen.

Cohen declined to comment specifically on the DARPA project.

"Clearly, DARPA sees many military uses, but the commercial market is our biggest," Cohen said.

According to its Web site, DARPA "pursues research and technology where risk and payoff are both very high and where success may provide dramatic advances for traditional military roles and missions."

Ko said that Memgen is part of a new breed of L.A. companies developing and commercializing "fundamental technologies."

Local stability

"The Bay Area competition makes it too hard for engineers to have steady progress," he said. "There are too many companies being funded and too many engineers going back and forth between companies. That's not good for long-term research and development. Southern California has a better. foundation and a more stable environment."

Memgen has plans to ship EFAB beta machines in about year.

To help with that process, Memgen last week hooked two new board members, David Lam and Morton Grosser, who have impressive tech industry resumes. Lam is head of the David Lam Group, an investment and business advisory firm for high-growth tech companies, and is probably best known for starting Lam Research Corp., a company that has made major breakthroughs in semiconductor manufacturing. Grosser is president of MG Consulting a Menlo Park firm focused on consulting for big-name tech firms like Hewlett-Packard Co. and Apple Computer Inc. and for VC firms like Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers and Institutional Venture Partners.