Tuesday, June 2, 2009

JPL Technology Gets New Life In Micron Spinoff

Technology originally developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is making its way into a spinoff of memory maker Micron Technology this week, as Micron announced that it is selling Aptina Imaging to a pair of private equity firms. Aptina Imaging, which is based in San Jose, is based on technology developed at JPL by Pasadena-based Photobit, which was acquired by Micron in November of 2001. Photobit's technology focused on CMOS image sensors, and formed the basis for Micron's business in supplying image sensors for high definition digital still and video cameras; Micron previously maintained an engineering team in Pasadena focused on its CMOS imaging products.

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