March 8, 2007

Sensicore poised for growth

U-M ties helped keep company in state

Sunday, March 11, 2007 BY DAVE GERSHMAN News Staff Reporter - Inside a small manufacturing facility on Ann Arbor's south side, workers assemble a high-tech, hand-held device that can help municipalities test their water supplies. Could this be one of the city's economic engines of the future?

Sensicore Inc., certainly hopes so. Located on Phoenix Drive, Sensicore employs about 40 people and is one of the startup companies formed to commercialize University of Michigan technology. Its product is on the market, the company is hiring and it has plans to ramp up production.

A key technology used in the device was invented by Richard Brown, a former U-M professor, and licensed from U-M in 2000. A few years later, U-M ties were important to keeping Sensicore in Michigan. Tests on company devices are run in the U-M solid state electronics laboratory, a highly specialized facility on North Campus.

"That was one of the big draws to stay here,'' said Christine Gibbons, chief financial officer at Sensicore.

Also a factor in Michigan's favor was a business tax credit worth $1.6 million that was obtained through the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

A silicone chip roughly the size of a quarter contains tiny sensors that can test for a variety of impurities in water. The devices went up for sale last year, and they can save municipalities time and money because they provide the power of a portable laboratory, the company says.

All it takes is a few drops of water to be fed into the hand-held device. Minutes later, it provides a reading.

"We think this is really revolutionary technology,'' said Kathy Marx, vice president for marketing at Sensicore. "There's nothing else like it on the market.''