API Nanotronics Corp. of New York, a supplier of electronic components and nanotechnology research and development for the defense and communications industries, today announced it has started operations at its new nanotechnology cleanroom facility, a former NanoOpto Corp. property in Somerset, N.J. API acquired all of the research and fabrication facilities and intellectual property of NanoOpto in July (See: "API Acquires NanoOpto") . API said it has now hired most of the former NanoOpto engineers and technicians and has begun making nano-optical products based on the company's nanogratings and atomic layer deposition (ALD) nanotechnologies. API now has one of the largest ALD production facilities in the US. ALD is capable of conformally coating materials, even nanostructured materials, with uniform layers of any number of oxides, semiconductors and metals, API said, creating new thin-film optics and electronics products. The new division is called API Nanofab Corp. and will produce polarizers, retarders and filters for the infrared, visible and ultraviolet regions of the spectrum based on nanogratings and hybrid optics developed by NanoOpto. In addition, API said it plans to build new cleanrooms at the facility for its discrete semiconductor products, thin-film electronics and magnetics business, and will also develop optical biosensor technologies based on nanoplasmonics. "Although we have only been in this new facility for a little over a month, we have already been contacted by several global companies who are interested in codeveloping optical products based on our nanofabrication and ALD capabilities," said API Chief Technology Officer Martin Moskovits.