CARBON NANOTUBE REPORT RELEASED
Everything you ever wanted to know about carbon nanotube technology can be yours – for $2,000.
DisplaySearch, an Austin, Texas-based market research and consulting firm, has released its Carbon Nanotube Technology Report, a 70-page document that explains what carbon nanotubes are, how they are manufactured, current obstacles and applications. The report also looks at the status of development at major companies.
JOINT PROJECT ADVANCES DRUG RESEARCH
Two companies have joined forces to develop chips that will capture and manipulate individual cells, which could lead to advances in drug discovery research.
Fluidigm Corp. (formerly Mycometrix) of San Francisco and Axon Instruments Inc. of Union City, Calif., will develop the microfluidic chips using Fluidigm’s microfluidic pump and valve technology. The chips will be a key component of a drug discovery tool under development at Axon, the companies said.
LIGHTCONNECT LAUNCHES MEMS DEVICES
Affordable and reliable fiber-optic components are the goals of two new devices developed by LightConnect Inc.
The Newark, Calif.-based designer and maker of MEMS-based fiber-optic network devices has introduced a dynamic gain equalizer and single- and multi-channel variable optical attenuators (VOA) for use in dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) networks. DWDM is a fiber-optic transmission technique that uses light wavelengths to transmit data.
Dynamic gain equalizers help maintain equal power in the optical channels of a DWDM system. VOAs are used to even out the strength of light signals in adjoining wavelengths.
LightConnect said the use of MEMS technology allows the devices to be 1,000 times faster and nearly 90 percent smaller than industry-standard devices.
AUSTRALIA GOES NANO, AGAIN
Australia’s Queensland state announced plans to build a research village that will include a nanotechnology institute on the site of a former prison, according to the Courier-Mail of Queensland.
No costs were reported for the project, which follows news last month that Victoria state will build a synchrotron for drug research. That will be the nation’s first particle accelerator, used as a high-resolution microscope for studying molecules.
Officials from both states attended the BIO2001 biotechnology conference last week in San Diego.
BEI NETS AWARD AT SENSORS EXPO
BEI Technologies Inc. won the bronze award in the Best of Sensors competition recently at the Sensors Expo in Chicago.
The San Francisco firm was honored for its Linear Gap Displacement Transducer, which measures short distances using a patented reflective fiber-optic technology. The device is able to detect the reflected light off flat surfaces and measure distances, the company said.
Applications include position measurement of fast-steering mirrors and position control in magnetically levitated bearings.
BEI makes electronic sensors and engineered subsystems used in factory and process automation, scientific and medical equipment, and telecommunications and transportation.