Viaspace
Viaspace is a clean energy company focused on commercializing technologies from NASA, Caltech, University of Southern California and the United States Department of Defense. The company operates in the alternative energy, renewable energy, and chemical sensing sectors. The company is associated with the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) and the California Institute of Technology through its CEO, Dr. Carl Kukkonen (the former Director of the Center for Space Microelectronics Technology (CSMT) and Manager of Supercomputing at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory). History Viaspace was founded in 1998 as a Caltech/NASA spin-off. The company began with the objective of transforming space and defense technologies that were originally developed at JPL into commercial products. In 1998, Viaspace signed a memorandum of understanding with RGC to commercialize a Quantum well infrared photodetector. This led to a joint venture partnership between the two companies called QWIP Technologies (QWIPTECH), which was incorporated in December 1998. Dr. Carl Kukkonen, CEO of Viaspace, served as initial CEO of QWIP Technologies until RGC acquired 100% of QWIPTECH in 2000. Since RGC's QWIPTECH acquisition, Viaspace has had no stake in QWIPTECH nor holds any Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector patents. In the summer of 1998, Viaspace also signed a memorandum of understanding with Omicron Technologies to form a joint venture for the commercialization of applications of a technology known as Active Pixel Sensors (APS). It was anticipated at the time of the joint venture that APS technology would be a strong competitor in its field and ultimately have a chance of replacing the widely used Charged Coupled Devices (CCDs) used in imaging technology. However, in 2000, Omicron announced that it had dropped out of the project due to financial issues. Viaspace decided to discontinue commercialization efforts for APS technology because it would be too costly. Commercialization of the APS technology by Omicron and Viaspace never materialized; however, Viaspace reacquired three patents from the failed Omicron partnership. These three patents are not associated with the imaging technology, but rather, in the field of radio satellite technology. The three radio satellite technology patents reacquired through the failed Omicron/ViaSpace Joint Venture are being applied toward Viaspace's inactive eCARmerce Inc. subsidiary, although there are no plans to further develop the eCARmerce subsidiary toward commercialization at this time. In 1999, a company called Spectrasensors Inc acquired exclusive patent rights from NASA and Caltech to commercialize gas sensor technology. SpectraSensors became a Viaspace subsidiary in which Dr. Carl Kukkonen was CEO. In 2001 a company called Tunable Photonics was spun off from SpectraSensors. Dr. Carl Kukkonen served as CEO of ViaSpace, SpectraSensors, and Tunable Photonics during 2001. In 2002, a company called FiberSpace acquired Tunable Photonics. In 2003, SpectraSensors reacquired the remaining intellectual property from Tunable Photonics. Presently, SpectraSensors is a profitable company separate from Viaspace. On August 14, 2000, Viaspace and Hewlett Packard announced a strategic alliance in which HP would provide US$10 million to Viaspace for commercialization of new technologies. Five million of HP's went to the development of Viachange.com, which Viaspace no longer operates.