Category Archives: Materials and Equipment

April 3, 2009: For the first time, MIT researchers have shown they can genetically engineer viruses to build both the positively and negatively charged ends of a lithium-ion battery.

The new virus-produced batteries have the same energy capacity and power performance as state-of-the-art rechargeable batteries being considered to power plug-in hybrid cars, and they could also be used to power a range of personal electronic devices, said Angela Belcher, the MIT materials scientist who led the research team.

The new batteries, described in the April 2 online edition of Science, could be manufactured with a cheap and environmentally benign process: The synthesis takes place at and below room temperature and requires no harmful organic solvents, and the materials that go into the battery are non-toxic.

In a traditional lithium-ion battery, lithium ions flow between a negatively charged anode, usually graphite, and the positively charged cathode, usually cobalt oxide or lithium iron phosphate. Three years ago, an MIT team led by Belcher reported that it had engineered viruses that could build an anode by coating themselves with cobalt oxide and gold and self-assembling to form a nanowire.

In the latest work, the team focused on building a highly powerful cathode to pair up with the anode, said Belcher, the Germeshausen Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Biological Engineering. Cathodes are more difficult to build than anodes because they must be highly conducting to be a fast electrode, however, most candidate materials for cathodes are highly insulating (non-conductive).

To achieve that, the researchers, including MIT Professor Gerbrand Ceder of materials science and Associate Professor Michael Strano of chemical engineering, genetically engineered viruses that first coat themselves with iron phosphate, then grab hold of carbon nanotubes to create a network of highly conductive material. (The virii were a common bacteriophage, which infect bacteria but are harmless to humans.)

Because the viruses recognize and bind specifically to certain materials (carbon nanotubes in this case), each iron phosphate nanowire can be electrically “wired” to conducting carbon nanotube networks. Electrons can travel along the carbon nanotube networks, percolating throughout the electrodes to the iron phosphate and transferring energy in a very short time.

The team found that incorporating carbon nanotubes increases the cathode’s conductivity without adding too much weight to the battery. In lab tests, batteries with the new cathode material could be charged and discharged at least 100 times without losing any capacitance. That is fewer charge cycles than currently available lithium-ion batteries, but “we expect them to be able to go much longer,” Belcher said.


A display of MIT’s virus-built battery (the silver-colored disc), being used to power an LED. (Source: MIT)

The prototype is packaged as a typical coin cell battery, but the technology allows for the assembly of very lightweight, flexible and conformable batteries that can take the shape of their container.

Last week, MIT President Susan Hockfield took the prototype battery to a press briefing at the White House where she and US President Barack Obama spoke about the need for federal funding to advance new clean-energy technologies.

Now that the researchers have demonstrated they can wire virus batteries at the nanoscale, they intend to pursue even better batteries using materials with higher voltage and capacitance, such as manganese phosphate and nickel phosphate, said Belcher. Once that next generation is ready, the technology could go into commercial production, she said.

March 27, 2009: A new research discovery at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute could lead to tougher, more durable composite frames for aircraft, watercraft, and automobiles.

Epoxy composites are increasingly being incorporated into the design of new jets, planes, and other vehicles. Composite material frames are extremely lightweight, which lowers the overall weight of the vehicle and boosts fuel efficiency. The downside is that epoxy composites can be brittle, which is detrimental to its structural integrity.

Professor Nikhil Koratkar, of Rensselaer’s Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering, has demonstrated that incorporating chemically treated carbon nanotubes into an epoxy composite can significantly improve the overall toughness, fatigue resistance, and durability of a composite frame.

When subjected to repetitive stress, a composite frame infused with treated nanotubes exhibited a fivefold reduction in crack growth rate as compared to a frame infused with untreated nanotubes, and a 20× reduction when compared to a composite frame made without nanotubes.

This newfound toughness and crack resistance is due to the treated nanotubes, which enhance the molecular mobility of the epoxy at the interface where the two materials touch. When stressed, this enhanced mobility enables the epoxy to craze — or result in the formation of a network of pillar-like fibers that bridge together both sides of the crack and slow its growth.

“This crazing behavior, and the bridging fibers it produces, dramatically slows the growth rate of a crack,” Koratkar said. “In order for the crack to grow, those fibers have to first stretch, deform plastically, and then break. It takes a lot of energy to stretch and break those fibers, energy that would have otherwise gone toward enlarging the crack.”

Results of the study were published this week in the journal Small.


Crazing behavior in epoxy composite causes it to deform into a network of nanoscale pillar-like fibers that bridge together both sides of a crack and slow its growth. (Credit: Rensselaer/Koratkar)

Epoxy composites infused with carbon nanotubes are known to be more resistant to cracks than pure epoxy composites, as the nanotubes stitch, or bridge, the two sides of the crack together. Infusing an epoxy with carbon nanotubes that have been functionalized, or treated, with the chemical group amidoamine, however, results in a completely different bridging phenomenon.


Crazing behavior in epoxy composite causes it to deform into a network of nanoscale pillar-like fibers that bridge together both sides of a crack and slow its growth. (Credit: Rensselaer/Koratkar)

At the interface of the functionalized nanotubes and the epoxy, the epoxy starts to craze, which is a highly unusual behavior for this particular type of composite, Koratkar said. The epoxy deforms, becomes more fluid, and creates connective fibers up to 10μm in length and with a diameter between 100-1000nm.

“We didn’t expect this at all. Crazing is common in certain types of thermoplastic polymers, but very unusual in the type of epoxy composite we used,” Koratkar said. “In addition to improved fatigue resistance and toughness, the treated nanotubes also enhanced the stiffness, hardness, and strength of the epoxy composite, which is very important for structural applications.”

Koratkar said the aircraft, boat, and automobile industries are increasingly looking to composites as a building material to make vehicle frames and components lighter. His research group plans to further investigate crazing behavior in epoxy composites, in order to better understand why the chemical treatment of nanotubes initiates crazing.

by Paula Mints, Navigant Consulting

March 25, 2009 – Selling equipment to the photovoltaic industry has traditionally followed a machine-by-machine paradigm: A tabber/stringer here, a furnace there, deposition equipment, etc. Manufacturers developed individual manufacturing lines based on the needs of their technology and their production. This “not invented here” (NIH) philosophy of manufacturing, along with over 30 years of industry unprofitability, made a turnkey PV manufacturing strategy less than attractive for equipment manufacturers.

Then in 2004 came a solar boom followed by a silicon shortage right behind. Accelerated demand for solar products smacked a significant raw material constraint for crystalline technologies, giving thin films an opportunity to enter. Unfortunately, at the time there was very little manufacturing capacity for thin films — simply, the technology had not needed it. Crystalline technologies, higher in efficiency and perceived as more reliable for years by installers of solar electric systems, held a 90% or higher share of the market for many years. The figure below highlights the long road that thin films have traveled over time to achieve a 14% share of technology shipments in 2008, showing the contribution of thin-film and crystalline technologies over time.


Thin-film and crystalline technology contribution to sales, 1998-2008. (Source: Navigant Consulting)

Though the conversion efficiency of thin-film technologies is lower — often significantly so — than that of crystalline, advantages are potentially lower manufacturing cost (more cushion in the margin when setting price) and better operation in low light conditions. When demand for photovoltaic technologies exploded in 2004, investors flocked to thin films believing that low cost was the answer, and that more-expensive-to-manufacture crystalline technology was on the wane. Startups were funded on the basis of being thin-film (particularly CIGS, amorphous silicon, and micromorph) or being perceived as new (again, CIGS, amorphous silicon, and micromorph) — despite the fact that most thin-film technologies have been in development or commercial production for ~20 years.

The other reason for investment in thin films was perceived low manufacturing cost. It is important to note that cost and price are driven differently — cost is raw material and economy of scale driven, whereas price is a market function. Low manufacturing cost will not necessarily lead to lower prices, nor will it naturally translate to sales. Thin-film technologies are lower in efficiency than crystalline, and lower efficiency leads to higher system installation cost because of the area penalty. In short, the installer needs more of everything down to the nuts and bolts than for higher-efficiency crystalline systems.

Enter semiconductor equipment manufacturers, eager and certain that they could change the paradigm from one machine at a time, to ready-to-go turnkey facilities. Initially these manufacturers believed that the synergies gained from similar industries (e.g., flat-panel displays) would lead to faster development timelines. They also assumed that the lower cost to manufacture thin films would lead to market leadership.

Not so fast. Most sales of turnkey lines were to new entrants, manufacturers from other industries (primarily semiconductor) who believed that low cost was the key to success and were experienced with turnkey solutions to manufacturing. It has not proven easy for these new entrants, and very little commercial product has come off of their turnkey lines. Moreover, in most cases, production on the lines has become more customized as the new manufacturers begin a development process closer to that of the traditional photovoltaic industry. Quite simply, it is not easy to make this stuff work, and it has to sit in the sun, in all weather, and produce electricity for 25 years — reliably.

That does not mean that the turnkey philosophy has failed. It is, however, becoming less static and more customized. Sales of customized turnkey lines will take a larger share of the equipment market in time, just as some sales will be true turnkey. Most equipment manufacturers will need to adjust to the one-machine-at-a-time paradigm, and all will try and control the consumable contracts that typically make up a significant percentage of after-sales revenues.

The photovoltaic industry is a >30-year-old startup. It is maturing and will evolve. The nontrivial aspect of technology development is unlikely to change, though it can and likely will adapt.

Paula Mints is principal analyst, PV Services Program, and associate director in the energy practice at Navigant Consulting. E-mail: [email protected].

This article was originally published by Photovoltaics World.

March 23, 2009: Researchers are describing a long-awaited advance toward applying the marvels of nanotechnology in the battle against cancer. They have developed the first hollow gold nanospheres — smaller than the finest flecks of dust — that search out and “cook” cancer cells. The cancer-destroying nanospheres show particular promise as a minimally invasive future treatment for malignant melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, the researchers say. Melanoma now causes more than 8,000 deaths annually in the United States alone and is on the increase globally.

The topic of a report presented at the American Chemical Society’s 237th National Meeting, the hollow gold nanospheres are equipped with a special “peptide.” That protein fragment draws the nanospheres directly to melanoma cells, while avoiding healthy skin cells. After collecting inside the cancer, the nanospheres heat up when exposed to near-infrared light, which penetrates deeply through the surface of the skin. In recent studies in mice, the hollow gold nanospheres did eight times more damage to skin tumors than the same nanospheres without the targeting peptides, the researchers say.

“This technique is very promising and exciting,” explains study co-author Jin Zhang, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California in Santa Cruz. “It’s basically like putting a cancer cell in hot water and boiling it to death. The more heat the metal nanospheres generate, the better.”

This form of cancer therapy is actually a variation of photothermal ablation, also known as photoablation therapy (PAT), a technique in which doctors use light to burn tumors. Since the technique can destroy healthy skin cells, doctors must carefully control the duration and intensity of treatment.

Researchers now know that PATs can be greatly enhanced by applying a light absorbing material, such as metal nanoparticles, to the tumor. Although researchers have developed various types of metal nanoparticles to help improve this technique, many materials show poor penetration into cancer cells and limited heat carrying-capacities. These particles include solid gold nanoparticles and nanorods that lack the desired combination of spherical shape and strong near-infrared light absorption for effective PAT, scientists say.

To develop more effective cancer-burning materials, Zhang and colleagues focused on hollow gold nanospheres, each about 1/50,000th the width of a single human hair. Previous studies by others suggest that gold “nanoshells” have the potential for strong near-infrared light absorption. However, scientists have been largely unable to produce them successfully in the lab, Zhang notes.


Partial view of a gold nanosphere magnified by a factor of one billion, as seen through an electron microscope. The darker ring shows the “wall” of the nanosphere, while the lighter area to the right of the ring shows the interior region of the shell. (Photo courtesy of Adam Schwartzberg and Jin Zhang)

After years of research toward this goal, Zhang announced in 2006 that he had finally developed a nanoshell or hollow nanosphere with the “right stuff” for cancer therapy: Gold spheres with an optimal light absorption capacity in the near-infrared region, small size, and spherical shape, perfect for penetrating cancer cells and burning them up.

“Previously developed nanostructures such as nanorods were like chopsticks on the nanoscale,” Zhang says. “They can go through the cell membrane, but only at certain angles. Our spheres allow a smoother, more efficient flow through the membranes.”

The gold nanoshells, which are nearly perfect spheres, range in size from 30 to 50 nanometers — thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair. The shells are also much smaller than other nanoparticles previously designed for photoablation therapy, he says. Another advantages is that gold is also safer and has fewer side effects in the body than other metal nanoparticles, Zhang notes.

In collaboration with Chun Li, a professor at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Zhang and his associates equipped the nanospheres with a peptide to a protein receptor that is abundant in melanoma cells, giving the nanospheres the ability to target and destroy skin cancer. In tests using mice, the resulting nanospheres were found to be significantly more effective than solid gold nanoparticles due to much stronger near infrared-light absorption of the hollow nanospheres, the researchers say.

The next step is to try the nanospheres in humans, Zhang says. This requires extensive preclinical toxicity studies. The mice study is the first step, and there is a long way to go before it can be put into clinical practice, Li says.

Honeywell Pb-free Die Attach Solder is a lead-free thermal interface material that is said to effectively manage heat produced by semiconductor chips to improve chip reliability. It is designed to dissipate the heat by filling the gap between the semiconductor and heat spreader.

Demand for lead-free solders is growing, driven in part by regulation. This lead-free material is an advanced technology that is better for the environment, but while still reportedly meeting industry requirements for melting temperature, wetting behavior, and mechanical properties, and particularly resists melting during board-level solder reflow.

Targeting the semiconductor industry’s power device segment, Pb-free Die Attach Solder is suited to a wide range of industries, from automotives to cell phones. It is designed for use in wire form and compliments Honeywell’s large diameter aluminum wire products. Honeywell Electronic Materials Morris Township, NJ www.honeywell.com

March 13, 2009: Arkema Inc. has chosen Hubron Speciality Ltd. to distribute its multiwall carbon nanotubes in the United Kingdom, according to a report posted on PRW.com.

Hubron, based in Manchester, England, will offer the full Graphistrength product range, including the extended range of masterbatches designed to ease incorporation into a range of elastomers, thermoplastics, resins and waterborne applications, according to the report.

“We are set to see real growth with these commercially exciting new products,” Jean-Marc Corpart, Graphistrength global business manager, told PRW.com.

March 11, 2009 – Global shipments of polysilicon surged 41% from the start of 2008 to year’s end, thanks to new capacity coming online — and even the late-year meltdown across the semiconductor industry and beyond didn’t curtail growth, according to data from SEMI.

Total polysilicon shipments in 4Q08 were 12,617 metric tons, about 6.8% higher than 3Q, and 41.4% higher than the 8921 MT shipped in 1Q08. That slowing growth in 4Q (Q-Q growth 2Q and 3Q was 18.2% and 12.0% respectively) happened in the teeth of a slowdown in semiconductor activity, but still reflected continued demand in the other major poly-Si consuming sector, solar photovoltaics.

“With the onset of new capacities coming on-line this year, solar should be free of its perennial bottleneck,” said SEMI’s Dan Tracy, senior director of industry research and statistics, in a statement. “Combined with friendly policies now in place, the industry can be in an enviable position of driving economic recovery.”

The data tracks net shipments (gross shipments minus returns) of polysilicon including CZ prime, CZ offgrade, float-zone, and solar, from companies including DC Chemical, Hemlock Semiconductor, MEMC Electronic Materials, REC Silicon, Tokuyama, and Wacker Chemie.

March 11, 2009: New research from Rice University and the University of Oulu in Oulu, Finland, finds that carbon nanotubes could significantly improve the performance of electrical commutators that are common in electric motors and generators.

The research, which Pulickel Ajayan, Rice’s Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. “The technology is widely used in industry, both in consumer gadgets as well as larger electrical machinery, so this could be a very interesting, near-term application for nanotubes.” The combination of mechanical and electrical properties of nanotubes makes this possible.

The carbon nanotubes used in the study are hollow tubes of pure carbon that are about 30nm in diameter. By comparison, a human hair is about 100,000nm in diameter. In addition to being small, nanotubes are also extremely lightweight and durable, and they are excellent conductors of heat and electricity.

Because of these properties, the researchers decided to test nanotubes as brush contacts. Brush contacts are conducting pads held against a spinning metal disc or rod by spring-loaded arms. Current is passed from the spinning disc through the brush contacts to other parts of the device.

To test the feasibility of using carbon nanotube brush contacts, the research team replaced the ordinary copper-carbon composite brushes of an electric motor with small blocks that contain millions of carbon nanotubes. Under an electron microscope, these millimeter-square blocks look like a tightly packed forest.


Pads of nanotube “forests ” were tested as brush contacts. (Credit: P. Ajayan/Rice University)

From Ajayan’s previous work, the team knew that these nanotube forests react something like a “memory foam” pillow; they regain their shape very quickly after they are compressed.

“This elasticity is something that’s not found in existing composites that are used for brush contacts, and that’s the essence of why the nanotube brush contacts perform better: They keep much more of their surface area in contact with the spinning disc,” said Robert Vajtai, faculty fellow at Rice. Vajtai worked on the study with Ajayan and a group of researchers in Finland led by University of Oulu Researcher Krisztian Kordas.

The team believes that the improved contact between the surface of the spinning disc and the brush accounts for the 90% reduction in lost energy.

March 9, 2009: AECOM Environment and the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) are collaborating on a new Sustainable Nanotechnology Initiative (SNI) at UCSB’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management.

The goal of the SNI is to begin to understand the environmental risks associated with engineered nanomaterials, according to a company news release.

AECOM’s Environmental Toxicology Lab and risk assessment group will collaborate with UCSB to study nanomaterial fate and transport, assist in exposure assessment and risk quantification and modeling, develop outreach programs and related training materials for use by industry involved in handling nanomaterials, and conduct “real world” testing of methods and instrumentation for the detection and characterization of nanomaterials.

“New nanotechnology-related products are already impacting global industry and society, and the Bren School’s SNI is critical to helping industry and the public understand the health and environmental implications of nanomaterials,” said Robert Weber, AECOM Environment Group chief executive. “Our collaboration provides another platform to share expertise, and positions us to better assist our clients in addressing issues associated with some nanomaterials.”

AECOM Environment is also working on nanotechnology projects for other public- and private-sector clients, including aquatic toxicity studies for a major commercial producer of carbon nanotubes which will help determine how wastewater discharge from the production of these materials affects aquatic species, according to the company.

March 4, 2009 – Intel has given its nod to more than three dozen key suppliers from its roster of thousands of supply-chain partners, ranging from capital equipment manufacturers to materials, components, and service providers, as the 2008 winners of its awards for Preferred Quality Supplier (PQS) and Supplier Continuous Quality Improvement (SCQI).

To earn Intel’s top award, its supplier continuous quality improvement (SCQI) award (now in its 22nd year), 14 honorees scored at least 95% on a list of performance and ability goals, including cost, quality, availability, delivery, technology, and responsiveness, over the past year. Another 26 suppliers scored better than 80% to earn Intel’s 2008 preferred quality supplier (PQS) recognition. All winners must also adhere to a “challenging” improvement plan and a quality/business systems assessment, and comply with the Electronic Industry Code of Conduct and Intel’s Green Sustainability Program.

Intel launched the SCQI program in 1987 to improve the systems and output of key suppliers, in an effort to minimize the amount of time and money spent inspecting incoming material, goods, and services purchased. The company honored 48 suppliers in 2007, 54 suppliers in 2006, 38 in 2005, 43 in 2004, and 45 companies in 2003.

The 2008 SCQI winners are:

– * Daewon Semiconductor Packaging Industrial Co. (injection molded trays, LGA covers/shipping media)
– ** DEK International GmBh (printing machines)
– * Disco Corp. (precision cutting, grinding, polishing equipment)
– * Hitachi High-Technologies Corp. (etchers, CD-SEM, defect inspection tools)
– * Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc. (diffusion furnaces)
– * ICOS Vision Systems NV (automated visual inspection equipment)
– **JSR Corp. (advanced photoresists, packaging materials, adhesives)
– * Kelly Services Inc. (staffing services)
– * Moses Lake Industries/TAMA Chemicals (ultrahigh-purity process and performance chemicals)
– ** Munters Corp. (VOC abatement equipment)
– ** Nikon Corp. (lithography scanners, for technology development and high-volume manufacturing)
– ** STATS ChipPAC Ltd. (turnkey packaging and test services)
– * SUMCO Corp. (200mm and 300mm polished and epitaxial silicon wafers)
– TXC Corp. (crystals and oscillators)

Winners of the 2008 PQS award include:

– ** AceCo Precision Manufacturing (fab spares and refurbishment)
– ** Asyst Technologies Inc. (automated material handling systems)
– Cisco Systems Inc. (networking hardware infrastructure, IP telephony, enterprise collaboration products)
– ** Dow Corning Corp. (electronic adhesives)
– FUJIFILM Electronic Materials (advanced chemistry, equipment for semiconductor device manufacturing)
– Ibiden Co., Ltd. (flip-chip substrate packages)
– ** KES System & Service Pte. Ltd. (burn-in boards, TIUs, BIB/TIU/UBID maintenance)
– ** Linde Electronics (ultrahigh-purity gases and chemicals, onsite services)
– ** Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (multilayer ceramic capacitors, inductors, ferrite beads, wireless modules)
– Nan Ya PCB (substrates, printed circuit boards)
– * Nippon Mining & Metals Co. Ltd. (sputtering targets for physical vapor deposition)
– Praxair Electronics (electronic process and bulk gases, sputtering targets, spare parts management)
– ** Richtek Technology Corp. (power management solutions)
– ** Rofin-Baasel (laser mark equipment)
– ** Rosendin Electric (electrical construction services)
– ** Securitas Security Services USA Inc. (security services)
– * Senju Metal Industry Co. Ltd. (soldering materials)
– Skanska (construction management)
– ** Tektronix Inc. (validation test equipment)
– SPX/Thermal Product Solutions (epoxy curing, IHS, pre-bake ovens)
– * Tokyo Electron Ltd. (semiconductor production equipment)
– TriQuint Semiconductor Inc. (amplifiers, RF switches, frontend module for WLAN products)
– ** Tyco Electronics (CPU sockets, connectors, passive components)
– Verizon Business (network telecommunications, cellular services)
– VWR International LLC (distribution of global sourcing, supply chain management)
– Xstrata Recycling Inc. (HVI component scrap processing)

(* a 2007 SQCI winner)
(** a 2007 PQS winner)

(Image of statue from Intel.com)