Tag Archives: Small Times Magazine

April 13, 2009: Inlustra Technologies, a California-based startup spun out from gallium nitride (GaN) research laboratories at the University of California at Santa Barbara, has developed a scalable production process for nonpolar and semipolar GaN substrates. The company is expanding its production facilities and has recently started to fill orders from customers.

GaN semiconductor materials are critical for the production of compact and highly efficient green, blue, violet, and ultraviolet light sources. They form the basis for green LEDs for traffic signals, white LEDs as backlights for modern high-definition/high contrast displays, and blue laser diodes for Blu-Ray DVD players. GaN-based white LEDs used for general lighting are seen as a highly efficient, non-toxic replacement for fluorescent and incandescent bulbs, yielding energy savings equivalent to over 5 billion barrels of oil over the next 20 years (according to the US Dept. of Energy).

The crystal structure of GaN causes some of its properties to vary strongly with orientation. The nonpolar and semipolar planes of this structure have excited practitioners in recent years as alternatives to the conventional polar GaN c-plane, which faces some fundamental device efficiency limitations. Nonpolar and semipolar GaN promise markedly increased device performance, manufacturing yields, and device longevity compared to conventional GaN technology. While the benefits of GaN substrates are widely acknowledged, producing the material has proven challenging, especially in the nonpolar and semipolar orientations.

“Our proprietary crystal growth techniques significantly reduce the number of microscopic defects in the substrates, which will enable our customers to realize improved yields in their device production processes,” Paul Fini, CTO at Inlustra, said in a news release. The company is currently offering nonpolar GaN substrate sizes between 5×10mm and 10×20mm but will scale up its process to 2-in. over the next 9-12 months.

April 7, 2009: “Breaking the Barriers to the Commercialization of Nanotechnology” will be the subject of the 7th New England International Nanomanufacturing Workshop June 18-19 at Northeastern University in Boston.

Those interested in submitting a paper for the workshop can do so by April 17.

The goal of the workshop is to address moving nanotechnology from the laboratory to industry-floor manufacturing. The workshop will address current developments and successes in transitioning research into commercial products and serve as a forum for industry, academia, and small business to interact and collaborate. Among the issues addressed:

  • What are the technical barriers to scale-up of directed assembly and other approaches?
  • What are the technical barriers to integrating nanoscale elements, structures, etc. with micro- and macro-structures into systems?
  • What are the currently available risk assessment tools and best environmental, health and safety practices for nanotechnology? Are there regulatory concerns for researchers or manufacturers?

April 6, 2009: The London Centre for Nanotechnology will develop a new device to enable people living with HIV to monitor their own health and the effectiveness of their treatments, thanks to a $3 million EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) grant.

The device will give people a way to monitor the virus for themselves, reducing the need to visit a doctor as often. It will act as an early warning system to tell patients to seek medical help if the virus is resisting anti-retroviral treatments. It could also be of real benefit to doctors in developing countries who urgently need rapid and affordable ways to diagnose and monitor their patients.

Researchers from the London Centre for Nanotechnology, a joint venture between UCL (University College London) and Imperial College London, and their research partners have been awarded the Nanotechnology for Healthcare grant from the EPSRC’s Grand Challenge Competition.

The research will bring biomedical engineers, physicists, chemists, virologists and clinicians together to create the device, which will work in a similar way to how diabetics check their insulin levels — where a hand-held machine analyses a finger prick of blood.

The device will use tiny mechanical sensors, called nano-cantilever arrays, to measure HIV and other protein markers that can indicate a rise in the level of the virus and the body’s response to it.

UCL lead investigator Rachel McKendry, Reader in Biomedical Nanoscience at the LCN, explains: “The nano-cantilever arrays are each coated with substances that stick to the HIV and other proteins, which are markers associated with disease progression. Accommodating these markers causes the highly sensitive sensors to bend like a diving board and this bend indicates the level of virus in the body. We have used nano-cantilever arrays to investigate drug resistance in super bugs, and are excited by the opportunity to extend this approach to detecting HIV markers.”

The device will display messages on an integral screen, giving patients access to clear, immediate advice. For example, they could be told that their condition remains stable if levels of virus do not change, or they could be told to make an appointment to see their doctor if the virus begins to flare up.

Investigator, Dr. Anna-Maria Goretti, an NHS consultant and co-investigator based at the Royal Free Hospital, says: “If patients neglect to take their treatments or need prompting to see their GP the device will provide a simple way of letting them know. It will really empower HIV patients to keep a close eye on their health and their treatments.”

Robin Weiss, Professor of Viral Oncology at UCL, whose pioneering work in identifying the receptor for HIV has deepened our understanding of HIV/AIDS, adds: “One of the principal advantages of the proposed device is its capacity to monitor viral and immunological markers on a single chip without the need for time consuming analysis that requires specialist laboratories.”

Dr Yeong-Ah Soh, lead investigator at Imperial and lecturer in Materials Science, who is responsible for engineering the nano-cantilever arrays, sayss: “This project combines technology from semiconductor processing with modern biology to produce a unique piece of kit for tracking how HIV develops in individual patients, and helping them to keep a close eye on their own health.”

The project will be carried out over the next three years, with the promise of additional funding.

In the UK, there are an estimated 70,000 carriers of HIV. Worldwide, HIV/AIDS has grown to pandemic proportions and today there are 35 million people living with the virus, two-thirds of them in sub-Saharan Africa. This development is expected to bring major improvement to UK patient and will anchor UK at the forefront of HIV research.

April 6, 2009: Carl Zeiss SMT has introduced its newly developed AURIGA CrossBeam (FIB-SEM) workstation.

As one of the pioneers in developing this class of instruments, and with more than 8 years of FIB-SEM experience, the company incorporated a huge number of innovations in the new AURIGA, Carl Zeiss said in a news release.

“Useful information about a sample goes far beyond just high resolution surface images,” Thomas Albrecht, director of product management, said in a news release. “We focused on two major tasks during the development of this powerful new instrument: First to make possible the analysis of a never-before-seen variety of samples, and second to enable customers to obtain the maximum information possible from each sample. AURIGA — delivering much more than just an image — is the result of this quest.”

The AURIGA has a completely redesigned vacuum chamber, which now includes a total of 15 ports for different detectors. The heart of the workstation is the GEMINI FE-SEM column. Its special in-lens EsB detector offers images with excellent material contrast. Additionally the design of the GEMINI column enables the analysis of magnetic samples. A feature unique to CrossBeam workstations from Carl Zeiss is simultaneous milling and high-resolution SEM imaging. To insure optimal customer support, AURIGA incorporates a new high-resolution FIB with a top level resolution of 2.5nm and better. Advanced gas processing technology for ion and e-beam assisted etching and deposition completes the sample processing capabilities of this new instrument.


Carl Zeiss’ new AURIGA highly flexible CrossBeam workstation delivers information beyond resolution. (Business Wire Photo)

April 6, 2009 Emerging nanomedicine company Nanobiotix says that an independent preclinical study has validated the applicability of using its “nanoPDT” nanoparticles to treat glioblastoma multiforme, one of the most prevalent brain tumors. Nanobiotix expects to attract corporate partners for the development of nanoPDT as the company focuses development efforts on its nanoXray technology, the firm said in a news release.

Co-funded by Nanobiotix and Cancéropôle Lyon Auvergne Rhône-Alpes (‘CLARA’), the proof-of-concept preclinical study was conducted by the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM) under principal investigator and neuro-oncologist Jérôme Honnorat.

“Our nanotechnology is designed to allow for the precise destruction of cancer cells via the controlled application of an outside-the-body energy source — in this case, a laser beam. Of course, there is much more work to be done, but we are extremely encouraged by these preclinical findings, which dramatically demonstrate the therapeutic effect of nanoparticles on glioblastoma and open the possibility of a new weapon with which neuro-oncologists might fight this difficult-to-treat tumor,” said Laurent Lévy, Ph.D., president and CEO of Nanobiotix and co-president of the French Technology Platform on Nanotechnology (FTPN).

“The nanoPDT particles allow for the controlled generation of physical reactions in targeted cells when triggered by the application of an external energy source — a laser beam in this case. This may have significant ramifications for cancer therapy in the not-too-distant future,” added Paras N. Prasad, one of the inventors of the Nanobiotix technology.

April 6, 2009: The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has issued an updated and expanded edition of its document, “Approaches to Safe Nanotechnology.” The updated document reiterates NIOSH’s standing interim recommendation that employers take prudent measures to control occupational exposures in the manufacture and industrial use of engineered nanomaterials, as research advances for determining if such materials pose work-related health and safety risks.

The new document reflects new scientific findings from ongoing research that have been published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature since the last revised draft version of “Approaches” was issued in 2006. These include findings from NIOSH’s own strategic research program, as well as research by scientific partners from the US and abroad.

The revised document:

  • Includes an expanded section on risk management, with a detailed discussion of factors that may affect occupational exposure to engineered nanomaterials, and expanded interim recommendations for controlling work-related exposures.
  • Expands the discussion of exposure assessment and characterization for engineered nanomaterials, including a new summary table of instruments and measurement methods used in the evaluation of nanomaterial exposures.
  • Is issued as a NIOSH numbered document, so that it can be cited more easily as a resource in peer-reviewed scientific publications. The original draft version in 2004 and the previous revised draft edition in 2006 were web-based electronic documents that did not have a formal NIOSH publication number.

“Health and safety practitioners and business observers have agreed that robust scientific research and authoritative, science-based recommendations are vital for the responsible development and growth of nanotechnology,” said NIOSH Acting Director Christine M. Branche, Ph.D. “NIOSH is pleased to issue the updated ‘Approaches to Safe Nanotechnology’ to provide ongoing interim guidance, reflect the astonishing advance of complex research in this area, and engage public review and comment.”

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.

April 2, 2009: NanoHorizons Inc., a developer and manufacturer of SmartSilver nanoscale antimicrobial additives for textiles, health care, and industrial applications, has joined with four other companies to create the Silver Nanotechnology Working Group under the sponsorship of the Silver Institute and the Silver Research Consortium. The group’s purpose is to collect and generate data that more completely document the performance benefits of silver nanoparticles in consumer and industrial applications.

“As conscientious scientists, we thrive on intensive research and peer review of our findings,” James Delattre, VP Global Marketing at NanoHorizons, said in a prepared statement. “Collaboration with other like-minded companies through the Silver Nanotechnology Working Group will allow us to more quickly advance silver nanoparticle science and bring additional beneficial products to market.”

The Silver Nanotechnology Working Group will initially focus on increasing scientific, regulatory, and public understanding of silver nanotechnology with concentration on the environmental and human health aspects. “Silver has been revered as an effective antimicrobial since ancient times,” continues Delattre. “The application of modern nanotechnology to silver enhances its natural antimicrobial benefits and greatly increases the breadth of its useful applications.” For example, NanoHorizons’ SmartSilver additives are used to effectively control bacteria in apparel, medical devices and textiles, as well as coatings and plastics.

Prior to joining the Silver Nanotechnology Working Group, NanoHorizons worked with the EPA to ensure that its SmartSilver antimicrobial additives pose no risk to the environment when used in fibers, coatings, and polymer applications. NanoHorizons also obtained approval from the International Oeko-Tex Association to confirm that the additives do not contain harmful levels of substances believed to be dangerous to human health. Silver is not included on Oeko-Tex’s list of restricted substances.

April 2, 2009: Syndiant Inc. has added eight new people to its staff after receiving new funding and seeing what the company called “explosive demand” for its pico projector technology.

The company announced that it has increased its staff 53 percent after new cash came in from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (TETF).

Syndiant has the key enabling technology for pico projectors, ultra miniature projectors small enough to fit into cell phones, media players and laptops that can generate large and higher resolution images from small devices.

“It is well known that investment in innovative small companies is the way to grow jobs and this serves as a prime example,” Mark Harward, Syndiant CEO, said in a news release. “Many of our new employees are from Texas Instruments DLP group that is also working on pico projectors. Our growth reflects an increasing recognition among our customers that we have the best and most cost effective technology to address the pico projector market.

“We were able to add experienced engineering staff thanks to the $3.5 million Technology Commercialization investment by TETF. Growing a company in a down market allows for much better capital efficiency as everything needed for growth costs less and the pool of available talent is greater. As we raise our next investment round and ramp to mass production, we will likely need to add more jobs to meet what we see as a very large market.”

The newly hired employees will focus on achieving mass production in the second half of 2009, as well as supporting more than 70 companies interested in using Syndiant’s pico projector display technology.

March 31, 2009: SiTime Corp., a developer of MEMS-based silicon timing solutions, has announced its entry into the $350M Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCXO) market with the introduction of SiT3701. According to a company news release, the product is the world’s smallest programmable voltage controlled MEMS oscillator (VCMO) with the best pull-range linearity.

The SiT3701 comes with an array of programmable features such as frequency, voltage, tolerance and pull range, enabling delivery of customized samples in 24 hours and production quantities in two weeks.

“SiTime continues to drive innovation in the $5 Billion timing market with our high performance MEMS and programmable analog technologies,” said Rajesh Vashist, SiTime’s CEO. “This VCMO offering also expands our product portfolio of programmable oscillators, clock generators and embedded resonators, enabling SiTime to become a complete timing solutions provider.”

The SiT3701 features 0.5% pull range linearity, which is an order of magnitude better than quartz based VCXOs, and translates into simpler design, higher performance and improved stability and reliability. It comes in four standard package sizes with the smallest being 2.5 × 2.0 mm, making it ideal for space-constrained applications, the company said.