You can either work finding the gold or you can work selling the picks, pans and shovels to the miners. Generally speaking, it’s a much wiser strategy to be a pick-and-shovel guy. And those are the companies I like the most when it comes to up-and-coming nanotech companies: FEI Company (NSDQ: FEIC, microscopy), CVD Equipment (NSDQ: CVV, solar and nanotech manufacturing equipment), Industrial Nanotech (NSDQ: INTK, advanced coatings) and Spire Corp (NSDQ: SPIR, solar turnkey manufacturing).

I posted a note about CVD yesterday reporting that it boosted sales from $14 million for 2007 to $25 million for the first three quarters of 2008. FEI locked down a deal with one of the world’s top pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors, India’s Sun Pharma. Industrial Nanotech just posted its fourth year of triple year-over-year revenue growth, despite a lousy economy.

And Spire has just inked a deal to provide parts of its Spi-Line TF Back End for thin film solar production to an up-and-coming US-based thin film maker, XsunX (OTC: XSNX). Based in Aliso Viejo, Calif., XsunX is a thin-film photovoltaic (TFPV) company that’s executing a phased plan to build and install 100 megawatts (MW) of a-Si thin film solar module manufacturing capacity. The company is working to complete the installation of its base production infrastructure in Portland, Ore., in 2008, and then grow capacities to 25 MW by early 2009 and to 100 MW by early 2010.

Spire’s turnkey line includes all of the process tools and services to create finished modules from the output of the deposition system. Substrates require testing for deposition feedback, specialized busing to connect the amorphous silicon cells in addition to the traditional lamination, framing, and final simulation. In addition to the process systems, Spire will provide in-depth training and knowledge transfer to ensure XsunX will achieve full output quickly.

The Spi-Line 25TF is capable of producing modules from any of the most popular thin film technologies. Systems are in use at most major and emerging companies utilizing cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), and amorphous silicon (a-Si). The Spi-Line can be tailored to fit the specifics of each customer’s process as well as scalable to increase capacity beyond 25 MW once the line is fully qualified and meets production goals.

In the midst of this terrible market and economy, at least two of these companies are doing very well indeed (FEI’s third quarter numbers come out Oct. 28 and Industrial Nanotech is still small and growing). And even in this crazy market where they’re all oversold, CVD was up 15 percent yesterday. They’re all cheap, and they all rate buys.

And check out XsunX; it’s done its homework, has a unique product and has some serious research to back it up. The site is more geared toward engineers and scientists than it is to your average homeowner or middle manager. I like that.