JAPAN’S SCIENCE BUDGET EMPHASIZES NANOTECHNOLOGY
Japan has targeted nanotechnology as one of four priorities in its fiscal 2001 science and technology budget, according to the Japanese wire service Jiji Press.
The Council for Science and Technology Policy, chaired by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, decided Wednesday that life science, information and telecommunications, environment and nanotechnology would together reinvigorate the Japanese economy, the report said.
The council said that the four research areas would help prevent disease, tackle global warming and reduce waste.
NANOPHASE LAUNCHES PRODUCT, NAMES DIRECTOR
Nanophase Technologies Corp. on Tuesday named a board member and commercially launched three custom-engineered nanocrystalline oxides, the company said.
James A. Henderson, former chairman and chief executive of Cummins Engine Co., has joined the board of directors.
Henderson, who has 35 years of global management experience, retired from Cummins in 1999. He also serves as chairman of the board of trustees for the Culver Educational Foundation, and as board director of Championship Auto Racing Teams, Landmark Communications, International Paper and SBC Communications.
Company officials said its new product line have a broad range of applications and are available as dry powders or solvents.
NanoTek Zinc Oxide HP is targeted for electronics, such as capacitors, and photoprinting. NanoTek Aluminum Oxide HP is for polishing, lighting and thermal spray applications. NanoTek Cerium Dioxide HP is for semiconductors and rigid memory disks, as well as chemical and environmental applications.
Nanophase, of Romeoville, Ill., is a leading maker of industrial quantities of nanoscale materials.
FRENCH MEMS FIRM SEES SALES RISE
MEMSCAP, a French provider of MEMS-based wireless and optical communications devices and services, said Tuesday that it earned $5.24 million during the first six months of 2001, five times more than the first half of last year, and double its revenue in all of 2000.
MEMSCAP earned $2.66 million during the second quarter of this year, compared to $2.58 million during the first quarter, according to a company statement.
The company said construction of its fabrication facility for optical MEMS components in Bernin, France, continues. The firm said it will be ready for large-volume production of micromirror-based switches, variable optical attenuators and tunable filters early next year.
CLAL INDUSTRIES CHIPS IN ON ISRAEL NANOTECH CENTER
Clal Industries and Investments and its subsidiary, Clal Biotechnology Industries, will invest between $2 million and $4 million in Tel Aviv University’s nanotechnology center, according to Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper.
Clal, a Tel Aviv-based investment conglomerate, said this week it will invest in a group of companies put together by the university to finance the center, which has been estimated to cost $20 million. The university announced plans to build the center six months ago, but has only raised $5 million, the report said.
The university has an agreement with the Belgian IMEC, a leading European independent research center, which develops and licenses microelectronics. The agreement will enable the university and its corporate partners to participate in research undertaken by the European Union, the report said.
COMPANIES PAIR UP ON OPTICAL SWITCHES
To take advantage of growing opportunities in optical switching, STMicroelectronics and Onix Microsystems Inc. have agreed to develop and make chipsets containing MEMS devices and integrated circuits, the companies said.
The systems will be used in Onix’s Transport Optical Switching Engine for dynamic cross connects, add/drop modules, network provisioning and network restoration.
The companies said MEMS will help make optical switching cheaper and simpler.
SILICON GENESIS DEVELOPS FABRICATION PROCESS
Increasing chip performance is one goal of a new fabrication process developer of Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) wafer technologies.
Silicon Genesis Corp. of Campbell, Calif., has developed a commercial process for thick SOI wafers, or wafers thicker than 1 micron. SiGen said the new process provides a cost-efficient method of emerging micro-optical-electromechanical systems (MOEMS). Those applications include optical signal multiplexers and switches and development of methods for on-chip clock synchronization and data exchange.
Building circuits on SOI allows for more compact chip designs, resulting in smaller devices and more chips per wafer, the company said.
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Jeff Karoub at [email protected] or call 734-994-1106.