Ceramic+Metal = $12 millionCeramic+Metal = $12 million

The next generation of wireless and optical equipment depends on components that can work in a high-power environment without overheating. Startup Lamina Ceramics is tackling that problem with a process of bonding ceramic to metal to outperform ceramic alone.

Lamina said last week that it has received $12 million in venture-capital funding from Morgenthaler Ventures and Sarnoff, which invented the bonding process that Lamina uses. Lamina's material, which it will make in a Westampton, N.J., factory, improves on low-temperature co-fired ceramic that's used to build disk drives and wireless components. The ceramic and metal-bond material dissipates heat more quickly, which the company says will allow smaller packaging without giving up performance.