# Nanosys

> Nanosys is a Silicon Valley materials company, founded in 2001 in Milpitas, California, that makes quantum dots - man-made semiconductor crystals 2 to 8 nanometers across that convert light into precisely tuned, saturated color. Its Quantum Dot Enhancement Film (QDEF) helped bring wide-color-gamut displays to mass market, and its materials have shipped in more than 70 million televisions, monitors, tablets and phones. Nanosys holds one of the largest quantum dot patent portfolios in the world and is developing NanoLED (QDEL), a self-emissive display technology in which quantum dots make their own light. In September 2023 its quantum dot business was acquired by Japan's Shoei Chemical, which now operates the Nanosys brand and its Milpitas R&D labs.

- **Founded:** 2001
- **Headquarters:** Milpitas, California, United States
- **Founders:** Larry Bock (Co-founder (serial entrepreneur, also co-founded Illumina)), Paul Alivisatos (Co-founder / Scientific founder (nanomaterials pioneer, UC Berkeley)), Charles Lieber (Co-founder / Scientific founder (Harvard))
- **Team size:** ~130 employees (some sources list ~50)
- **Products:** QDEF (Quantum Dot Enhancement Film), NanoLED / QDEL, Quantum dot materials, SiNANOde
- **Notable:** Materials shipped in more than 70 million LCD and OLED displays worldwide, One of the largest quantum dot patent portfolios in the world (650+ issued and pending patents), Best of CES 2011 Enabling Technology Award for QDEF

## Products & services

- **QDEF (Quantum Dot Enhancement Film)** — An optical film for LED-backlit LCDs, first announced at SID Display Week in May 2011. Each sheet holds trillions of quantum dot phosphors that convert blue LED light into high-quality tri-color white, giving LCDs wider color gamut and higher brightness.
- **NanoLED / QDEL** — Nanosys's electroluminescent quantum dot display technology (also called QDEL, EL-QD, QD-LED). The dots conduct electricity and emit their own light with no separate backlight, promising thinner, brighter, more color-accurate displays. Targeted for commercial displays around 2029.
- **Quantum dot materials** — Core cadmium-free and heavy-metal-free quantum dots, 2-8 nm semiconductor crystals tunable by size, licensed and supplied to the world's leading display makers for TVs, monitors, tablets and phones.
- **SiNANOde** — A silicon-carbon composite anode material for lithium-ion batteries, engineered to manage lithium insertion without cyclic swelling damage, claimed to significantly increase battery capacity.

## Achievements

- Materials shipped in more than 70 million LCD and OLED displays worldwide
- One of the largest quantum dot patent portfolios in the world (650+ issued and pending patents)
- Best of CES 2011 Enabling Technology Award for QDEF
- SID Gold Component of the Year Award 2012 for QDEF
- Wall Street Journal 2010 Technology Innovation Awards runner-up (semiconductors)
- Pioneered cadmium-free / heavy-metal-free quantum dots for mainstream displays
- Claimed world's largest quantum dot production capacity

## Latest updates

- **2026-07** — Nanosys newsroom highlights why BT.2020 color matters for the future of displays.
- **2026-05** — Presence at SID Display Week 2026, unpacking the state of quantum dot displays.
- **2026-01** — At CES 2026, showcased a display prototype using a dual-wavelength red pixel to explore photobiomodulation and human-centric display design; reiterated roadmap of brighter QD-OLED in 2026 and NanoLED/QDEL by 2029.
- **2023-09** — Shoei Chemical acquired substantially all of Nanosys's quantum dot business, including R&D, sales and marketing teams and Milpitas labs.

## Links

- Website: https://nanosys.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nanosys
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/NanosysInc
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NanosysInc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nanosys

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/nanosys
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-07