Nanotech company to invest $2.9M in C-ville expansion

Laser Thermal, a nanotechnology company spun out of the University of Virginia, will spend $2.9 million and add 28 jobs at its manufacturing, research and development facility in Charlottesville, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Monday.

The company provides testing services to companies wanting to understand thermal properties at the device level, such as semiconductor companies seeking to learn more about the properties of materials used in its chips, explained  Laser Thermal’s CEO and co-founder, John Gaskins.

In October 2022, Laser Thermal began selling a tool it manufactures to measure heat flow in devices. The company also has two additional tools in development, one to measure thermal properties at nanoscales invisible to the naked eye, and the other to measure bulk properties of materials, Gaskins says.

“Laser Thermal’s decision to expand its research and development capacity in Charlottesville highlights the economic development generated from our world-class universities like the University of Virginia and the innovation and talent they produce,” Youngkin said in a statement. “The company’s success also showcases Virginia’s ongoing technology sector growth and we look forward to a continued partnership.”

Founded in 2021, Laser Thermal currently has 14 full-time employees, Gaskins said. The expansion adds an additional 5,200 square feet to the company’s existing 2,700 square feet in the city’s Ix Business Park.

“As a native Virginian, there was no other place I wanted to start a company due to proximity to major shipping hubs and international airports, the ability to maintain collaborative ties with the University of Virginia, and access to bright young talent from the first-class higher education network that exists here,” Gaskins said in a statement. “Many of our employees are originally from Virginia, or are happily transplanted, and love working at a high-tech company located in such a beautiful, friendly, and innovative state.”

The announcement comes less than a week after Youngkin, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner and university and industry officials gathered in Falls Church for the public launch of the Virginia Alliance for Semiconductor Technology. The launch included a private summit with the goal of bringing together academia and business to develop ideas for encouraging the semiconductor industry to grow in Virginia.

Gaskins said he sees his company as “another piece of the semiconductor ecosystem, providing thermal measurements to companies and universities that really haven’t been available on the commercial scale up to this point.” Gaskins said the company is currently working on an Air Force Small Business Innovation Research contract, with others in the pipeline.