Category Archives: Materials and Equipment

Jan. 18, 2007 — GE Global Research, the Niskayuna, N.Y.-based centralized research organization of the General Electric Company, announced what it claims is a promising breakthrough in nanotechnology that provides a direct pathway to making nanoceramic materials from polymeric precursors.

Developing processes and a greater understanding of nano-engineered ceramics could lead to future applications in aviation and energy, the company said, where products such as aircraft engines and gas turbines could one day achieve new levels of efficiency, reliability and environmental performance.

A cross-disciplinary team led by Patrick Malenfant and Julin Wan made the discovery, which is reported in the January issue of Nature Nanotechnology.

The team developed a very simple synthesis for the polymeric precursor, which enables a very efficient path towards ordered non-oxide ceramic nanostructures. The technology is based on a novel inorganic/organic block copolymer that forms ordered polymeric nanostructures via self-assembly.

The resulting material is subsequently pyrolized to yield the desired ceramic, in which the original nanostructure is retained. The unique aspect of the invention is that the desired composition and the ability to form ordered nanostructures are built in. No external template is needed, and the process is simple and robust.

“Drawing from recent developments in the literature, we were able to develop a robust synthesis of well-defined block copolymers that doesn’t require stringent atmospheric conditions and that readily assemble into ordered nanostructures upon solvent evaporation. Pyrolysis provides ceramic materials that retain their nanostructure up to 1400 °C,” Malenfant said in a prepared statement.

The development of nanoceramic materials is a key objective of GE’s nanotechnology program at Global Research. Ceramics are extremely heat resistant but brittle materials. However, nature has demonstrated that through nanotechnology, ceramic materials can be made more durable. Non-oxide ceramics with increased toughness, combined with their intrinsic heat-resistant properties, could have broad applications for GE’s aviation and energy businesses.

Malenfant and Wan point out that while damage tolerant high-temperature ceramics could revolutionize product development in aviation and energy, structural applications are still many years away. More immediate applications could result from the ability to prepare high surface area ceramics that could be exploited in catalysis.

January 16, 2007 – Rite Track, West Chester, OH, and Japan’s Tokyo Electron Ltd. have extended their existing partnership, adding the TEL Clean Track ACT 8 to the family of TEL Clean Track Mark 200mm track systems sold and serviced by Rite Track.

The ACT 8 expansion, covering the US territory only, extends a partnership formed in 2003, under which the company supplies and services TEL Clean Track Mark Vz and Mark 7/8 track systems.

“Our successful performance with the CLEAN TRACK MARK series product lines led to us having the opportunity to now offer Certified/Refurbished ACT 8 systems to the marketplace,” said Tim Hayden, Rite Track president and CEO, in a statement.

January 15, 2007 – AZ Electronic Materials plans to invest about $7.8 million to “significantly expand” its photoresist facility and production in Hsinchu, to produce semi-finished products and eliminate the need for using bulk production in Japan.

Investment will include building a refrigerated warehouse, increase storage capacity and installed process equipment, and add quality control equipment and tools. Workforce at the site also will swell by about 30% to 124 employees. Construction is slated to be completed by October, and take another 12 months to become fully operational.

“Through having additional capacity, and being able to make more products directly in Taiwan, we hope to be able to continue to provide the highest quality products for our customers, and to be able to meet increased demand in the future,” said Natsuo Watase, country head of AZ Electronic Materials in Taiwan, in a statement.

January 15, 2007 – Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute say they’ve developed new hybrid structures that combine the best properties of carbon nanotubes and metal nanowires, to overcome some of the key hurdles for using carbon nanotubes as a building block for future chips.

The nanowires are made from an alumina template, with copper or gold wires deposited inside nanometer-range pores. The entire assembly is placed in a furnace along with carbon-rich compound. When heated to high temperatures, the carbon atoms arrange themselves along the channel wall of the template, and the carbon nanotubes grow directly on top of the copper wires, the scientists say.

The new technique allows precise attachment of carbon nanotubes to individual metal pins, and enables manipulation and control of the junctions between nanotubes and nanowires over several hundred microns of length, according to Fung Suong Ou, the paper’s corresponding author and a graduate student in materials science and electrical engineering at Rensselaer, adding that the “really easy technique” is applicable to other materials. “The alumina templates are already mass-produced for use in the filter industry, and the technique can be easily scaled up for industrial use,” he noted.

So far the researchers have made hybrid nanowires combining carbon nanotubes with both copper and gold. They are also currently working to combine the nanotubes with an unidentified semiconductor material to create a diode.

The research was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Focus Center New York for Electronic Interconnects.

Unidym signs OLED agreement


January 15, 2007

Jan. 15, 2007 — Arrowhead Research Corp. of Pasadena, Calif., announced that its majority-owned subsidiary, Unidym, has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) in Singapore to develop organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) incorporating transparent electrodes made of carbon nanotubes.

Under the terms of the agreement, Unidym will provide IMRE researchers with access to its proprietary, carbon nanotube-based, transparent electrodes which IMRE will incorporate into its OLED devices.

According to iSuppli Corp., the market for OLEDs was $408 million in 2004 and is expected to reach $2.9 billion by 2011. Arrowhead says carbon nanotube-based transparent electrodes have the potential to improve the performance of OLEDs while also reducing their production costs.

“We believe IMRE is a world leader in OLED technology and are pleased that Unidym has entered this collaboration with such a distinguished institution,” said R. Bruce Stewart, Arrowhead Research chairman, in a prepared statement. “We will continue to look for strategic partners to integrate Unidym’s transparent electrodes into optoelectronic systems.” Arrowhead has an 88 percent ownership stake in Unidym.

January 9, 2007 — /ISOLA/ — CHANDLER, AZ — ISOLA GROUP, SARL, a designer, developer and manufacturer of high performance base materials for the printed circuit board industry, announced today completion of extensive upgrades to its Ridgeway, South Carolina facility. The multi-million dollar upgrades that increase capacity 33% includes an Aiki automated build up system and associated automation housed in a new Class 1K capable clean room facility. According to Ray Sharpe, Isola CEO, “these state-of-the-art upgrades to automation, build up and clean room technology will allow us to better respond to the industries ever increasing demands for quality and delivery.”

The Ridgeway facility upgrades were completed at the end of December 2006.

About Isola
Isola Group, S.a.r.l., with headquarters in Chandler, Arizona, is a technology-driven, global designer, developer and manufacturer of high performance base materials used in the manufacture of advanced multilayer printed circuit boards worldwide. Isola’s investment in research and development, technology and state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities and practices results in superior value to our customers, with innovative solutions to minimize costs and cut manufacturing time. Our commitment is reflected in our global network of sales and distribution offices allowing us to meet evolving customer needs and provide a full spectrum of services. Isola’s broad range of products are used in multiple applications including: aerospace, automotive, broadband telecommunications, military, chip packaging and testing, high end computing, high speed digital designs and other specialty markets. Isola operates multiple manufacturing, R&D and sales offices throughout Europe, Asia and the United States. For a complete listing of product offerings and facilities visit our website at www.isola-group.com.

Contact: Erik Bergum +1 603/738-0766
[email protected]

Chris Rodrigues +1 760/603-1171
[email protected]

Jan. 10, 2007 — Virtus Advanced Sensors of Pittsburgh announced it has entered into a strategic collaboration agreement with several Taiwan-based UMC Group companies including Unimicron, Taiwan’s largest printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturer and affiliated MEMS foundry ChipSense. UMC is the world’s second largest semiconductor foundry and parent company of Unimicron.

The companies will collaborate on producing 3-axis accelerometers for a variety of consumer electronics oriented market applications including cell phones, laptop computers and car navigation systems. The agreement includes collaboration on product design, production, marketing and sales activities.

“We believe this alliance will produce the results we are looking for this time next year. Our goal is to eventually establish our technology as the global standard for 3-axis accelerometers for consumer electronics applications. This partnership is a first step toward that goal,” said Virtus President & CEO Louis Ross in a prepared statement.

According to Mr. Ross, “ChipSense has the capability and capacity to deliver reliably volume production,” and has the full support of its parent companies UMC and Unimicron. ChipSense Chairman Simon Chou believes the “collaboration allows both ChipSense and Virtus to benefit a lot from each others complementary strengths. With this collaboration, Virtus has a reliable and capable manufacturing partner, ChipSense, and this is also a further validation of Virtus’ technology. For ChipSense, it will build up very valuable technological know-how and access to a fast-growing market.”

ChipSense President Robert Hsieh believes the collaboration represents “…a historical moment for both Virtus and ChipSense” and looks to introduce 3-axis accelerometer products from the collaboration to the market by Q4 of 2007. ChipSense has expanded its operations over the past several years and is increasing its investment in new equipment and personnel.

The parent company of ChipSense is Unimicron, the 6th largest printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturer in the world and member of the UMC Group.

Unimicron also recently acquired Asia Pacific MicroSystems, Taiwan’s largest MEMS foundry, and now employs more than 350 people working on MEMS.

Production will take place in Hsinchu Science Park, established in 1980. The park is home to most of Taiwan’s producers of wafers, integrated circuit foundries, mask read-only memory, ADSL modems, Web cards, and small thin-film liquid-crystal displays.

(January 9, 2007) CLINTON, NY &#151 Indium Corporation appointed Tim Jensen product manager for advanced assembly materials, and promoted Jordan Ross to product specialist for thermal applications. Both Jensen and Ross will continue to operate out of Indium headquarters in Clinton.

by M. David Levenson, Senior Technical Editor

A Dec. 8 workshop at Stanford U.’s Center for Magnetic Nanotechnology on the patterning and imaging of magnetic nanostructures offered many looks at the future of data storage, including unique fabrication technology used to make heads with state-of-the art sensors, and the challenges of “bit patterned media.” Several interesting presentations also delved into medical and biotech applications of magnetic nanoparticles.

The Center for Magnetic Nanotechnology superceded Stanford’s Center for Research on Information Storage Materials founded in 1991, but it is not just about data storage anymore. In fact, the most interesting presentations at the workshop dealt with medical and biotech applications of magnetic nanoparticles. For example, tiny magnetic particles can be bonded to DNA molecules to label those hybridized with known DNA sequences located at spin valve sensors on a chip. The sensitivity is better than that obtained with fluorescence detection, and the equipment is easier to use for diagnostics, according to Prof. Wang. In another medical application, tumor-seeking proteins bonded to nano-magnets were injected to improve in vivo imaging.

Future data storage technology was the subject of several workshop talks. Bob Fontana of Hitachi data systems described the unique fabrication technology used to make heads with state-of-the art sensors 58nm wide and 10nm thick. David Kuo of Seagate described the challenges of “bit patterned media,” where data must be stored on individual nanoparticles. The near-term goal is to create discs with 18nm dots at 36nm pitch on circular tracks by imprint lithography, or perhaps self-assembly. The templates would likely be written by a rotating stage e-beam system — but with today’s technology that would take two days!

The wrap-up talk was given by William Almon, the founder of MRAM startup Grandis and a long-time executive in the data storage industry. He pointed out that the time interval over which technology investors want to recover their money is collapsing, but the R&D effort needed to reach a market is also collapsing due to the availability of infrastructure at places like Stanford. Times are good for technology today, since capital, creativity, and infrastructure are available — the key, he said, is capturing the creativity.

Ten faculty members from a variety of disciplines are associated with the center, which is headed by Prof. Shan Wang, with Prof. Robert M. White acting as executive director, but much of the research is motivated by its industrial affiliates. For $10K/a year a company can become a “member,” receiving publications and participating in workshops; for about $80K/year an industrial affiliate of the center can sponsor the research of a Ph.D. student on a topic of industrial interest, with full access to the unique Stanford Nanomagnetics and Nanofabrication Facilities. A past success was a room temperature spin-filter junction demonstrated by Michael Chapline, one of Prof. Wang’s students. — M.D.L.

Jan. 9, 2007 — NovaCentrix, an Austin, Texas, nanotechnology products company with a focus on applications in printable electronics, life sciences, and energetics, announced advancements to allow high volume production of nanopowders.

NovaCentrix said it completed these efforts to meet current and future commercial application demands, including the shipment of a large order of aluminum nanoparticles in the second half of 2006. NovaCentrix said its large-scale commercial production equipment is now capable of producing metric tons materials annually.

“Nanometals production is an area where large-scale commercialization has been elusive,” said Steve Leach, CEO of NovaCentrix, in a prepared statement. “NovaCentrix has broken the barriers by utilizing rigorous production process scaling techniques as learned from high volume semiconductor and computer manufacturing. While our production scalability is a testament to our technical capabilities, it addresses real marketplace needs in printable electronics, life sciences, and energetics.”

Over the past year, NovaCentrix said it has focused considerable effort on the development of commercial scale production of high-performance nanopowders of essentially any conductive inorganic material. The company utilizes its proprietary pulsed-plasma synthesis process to offer high performance and yet economical metal nanoparticles ranging from as small as 1 nm to 120 nm. NovaCentrix also produces a select range of high performance nanoscale oxides, such as iron oxide and niobium pentoxide.

To serve its target markets, the company is developing Metalon inks, a full portfolio of nanoscale conductive inks for printable electronics applications. NovaCentrix says Metalon inks are suited for high speed printing processes given that they are formulated from pure and discrete nanoscale silver and copper particles.

NovaCentrix has made available Metalon JS-011, a water-based, electrically conductive silver ink especially formulated for ink jet printers, and Metalon FS-066, a stretchable, conductive ink formulated to adhere to flexible substrates, and stretchable up to 100 percent while maintaining conductivity performance. For the life science applications, NovaCentrix’ Effisil silver additives are used in FDA approved wound care products.