Nanosys Inc., an advanced materials architect, today closed a $15 million sixth round of funding. The company will use the new investment to expand its quantum dot manufacturing capabilities. Nanosys' flagship quantum dot product is Quantum Dot Enhancement Film™ (QDEF), which vastly improves the color performance and efficiency of Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs).

"You've never seen anything like a quantum dot display," said Jason Hartlove, President and CEO of Nanosys. "We are working with display makers to create a new high color gamut display experience that is cheaper, more efficient and more reliable than anything else currently on the market. The response from manufacturers so far has been great and demand for QDEF has grown to the point that we'll need to expand manufacturing to keep up."

Nanosys will expand its quantum dot manufacturing line more than tenfold in order to meet increasing demand. The expansion will make Nanosys the largest quantum dot manufacturer in the world.

Most current LCDs are only capable of displaying 35 percent or less of the visible color spectrum. This means the viewing experience on an LCD is limited and vastly different from what is seen in the real world, as colors are altered or left out altogether. Wide color gamut displays make the viewing experience on an electronic device much closer to the vibrant visual experience of real life. An LCD powered by QDEF can display 50 percent or more color than a standard LCD. QDEF also provides a significant energy efficiency advantage over other LCD backlight technologies.

QDEF utilizes the light emitting properties of quantum dots to create an ideal backlight for LCDs, which is one of the most critical factors in the color and efficiency performance of the display. A quantum dot, which is 10,000 times narrower than a human hair, can be engineered to emit light at very precise wavelengths. QDEF relies on this unique ability to control the spectral output of a quantum dot to create an ideal white backlight specifically designed for LCDs. Trillions of custom engineered quantum dots are loaded into each sheet of QDEF, which fits inside an LCD backlight unit. The new film replaces one already found inside the LCD backlight, which means the manufacturing process requires no new equipment or process changes for the LCD manufacturer.

About Nanosys, Inc.
Nanosys, Inc. is an advanced material architect, harnessing the fundamental properties of inorganic materials into process ready systems that can integrate into existing manufacturing to produce vastly superior products in lighting, electronic displays and energy storage.