Dexter Research Center
November 1999
When Bob Toth and two others started Dexter Research Center, in Dexter, Michigan, in 1975, "Infrared detectors (i.e., noncontact temperature measurement devices) were really expensive and primarily used only in the military," he says. "There were no really good cheap commercial infrared detectors." Now, thanks to Dexter Research's commercialization of technology originating at the University of Michigan, their availability and applications abound: spectrometers, emission gas analyzers for auto repair garages, even ear thermometers. "We've been supplying detectors to that market for quite a while," says Toth.
Such volume was made possible by a device developed by UM Engineering Professors Kensall D. Wise and Khalil Najafi. "The thermopile detectors that we manufacture here are made by vacuum deposition of bismuth and antimony," says Toth. "It's a labor-intensive process. As a result, the price of a detector made that way can come down to a certain point and then it can't really go any lower. For very large volume markets, where the price has to be very low, making thermopiles using silicon micromachining techniques is the obvious answer. That's how I got involved with Ken Wise. He had been working on this for quite a while before I met him, and during that time, the UM patented a number of things. One of them was for this silicon-based thermopile detector. So I got some samples from them and we made some detectors out of them, found out how to mount them up and actually produce a salable unit, and that's when we decided to go ahead and license the technology from UM."
The role of the Office of Technology Transfer was essential. "We went through them to license the technology, they drew up a licensing agreement, and we decided on what kind of royalties would be paid, depending on how the detectors were constructed," says Toth. "We haven't had any problems. We're simply paying them a royalty on sales, for all types of applications."
Thanks to the company's ongoing interaction with the University, there may be a new one. "What we are working on now with UM is a different type of silicon thermopile detector that will be low-cost and usable for inexpensive ear thermometers," says Toth.
The silicon-based devices are manufactured at a silicon foundry and sent to the Dexter Research Center plant, where the resulting wafers are processed and made into detectors. "Everything's done here, including R&D," says Toth, a physicist by training. "Currently, we have about 75 employees."
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