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Thesis: Ph. D. in Engineering Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, 2017., Cataloged from PDF version of thesis., Includes bibliographical references (pages 408-417)., Established companies in technology-enabled industries such as software, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors, have used corporate venture capital as a lever to access and screen technological advances, and to drive innovation outside the traditional firm boundaries. Recent years have witnessed emergence of a new wave of corporate venture capital funds that increasingly interact and compete with traditional venture capital firms in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The incremental benefits of financing a startup through corporate venture capital have been a subject of study by researchers across Economics, Finance, Strategy, and Innovation fields. First, this thesis examines entrepreneurs' rationale for raising capital from corporate investors. Through the analysis of an online survey conducted with startups based in the US and founded between 2010-15, we identify that startups that operate in capital-intensive industries, such as life sciences and manufacturing, raise capital from corporate investors in order to establish strategic partnership with corporates, significantly more than do startups in capital-light industries such as enterprise and consumer software. Second, through an empirical analysis of a panel of 8,190 startups founded in the US between 2000-10, this thesis shows that corporate venture capital is more beneficial to startups that operate in capital-intensive industries. Using a bi-variate probit model, this thesis shows that startups backed by corporate venture capital are more likely to be acquired or go public, and that the likelihood of an exit event increases as capital-intensity of the industry magnifies, as measured by the level of fixed assets on companies' balance sheets. In addition, we provide empirical evidence that participation of corporate venture capital in a financing round, helps a capital-intensive startup to raise further funding from reputable traditional venture capital firms. Third, this thesis presents empiri, by Ali Farahanchi., Ph. D. in Engineering Systems

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, June 2009., "May 2008." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis., Includes bibliographical references (p. 43)., A quantitative model capturing pattern dependent effects and time evolution of the etch rate in Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE) is presented. DRIE is a key process for pattern formation in semiconductor fabrication. Non-uniformities are caused due to microloading and aspect ratio dependencies. The etch rate varies over time and lateral etch consumes some of the etching species. This thesis contributes a physical analysis for capturing and modeling microloading, aspect ratio dependencies, effects of lateral etch and time evolution of the etch rate. This methodology is applied to the study of etching variation on silicon wafers; the integrated model is able to predict pattern density and feature size dependent non-uniformities in trench depth and time evolution of the etch rate. Previous studies of variation in plasma etching have characterized microloading and aspect ratio dependent etching (ARDE) as distinct constant causes for etch non-uniformity. In contrast to these previous works, we present here a time-based methodology for vertical and lateral etch., by Ali Farahanchi., M.Eng.