Veeco’s high-performance Innova features a small footprint — and pricetag. (Photo: Veeco)

June 20, 2007 — Veeco Instruments Inc. (Woodbury, NY), provider of atomic force microscopes (AFMs) for research, has released its new Innova Scanning Probe Microscope (SPM) for physical, materials, and life science applications.

According David V. Rossi, Vice President, Veeco’s Nano-Bio AFM business, the unit’s resolution “is equal to that of AFM systems that cost many thousands more, and its full range of SPM modes brings high-quality research capability to a wide variety of applications.”

The compact Innova features low-noise, closed-loop scanning and high-resolution, top-down optics, and easy tip exchange.

“With noise levels approaching those of open-loop operation and the ability to activate and deactivate closed-loop scan linearization on-the-fly, Veeco’s Innova SPM can achieve atomic resolution on any portion of a full-size scan without moving the probe off the sample surface,” says James Nelson, Ph.D., Veeco’s Director of Product Management.

The Innova’s patented top-down optics promise better than 1-micron resolution and precise probe positioning on the sample. The optics are completely contained within the protective instrument cover, allowing the probe and sample to be viewed at any time while still isolating optical and electrical components from the environment. The open design of the sample stage also enables flexibility. Innova’s new SPMlab-V 7.0 software incorporates real-time signal diagnostics and processing options and offers direct and intuitive access to scan and feedback parameters.

For a limited time, the instrument also comes complete with NanoPlot, Veeco’s new nanolithography and nanomanipulation software package.

June 20, 2007 — Nominations for this year’s Foresight Nanotech Institute Feynman Prizes for Nanotechnology — as well as related Communications and Student prizes — are being accepted now until June 30.

The Feynman Prizes, named in honor of pioneer physicist Richard Feynman, are given in two categories, one for experiment and the other for theory in nanotechnology. Established in 1993, the prizes honor researchers whose recent work has most advanced the achievement of Feynman’s goal for nanotechnology: the construction of atomically-precise products through the use of productive nanosystems.

The two prizes will be awarded at the “Productive Nanosystems: Launching the Technology Roadmap,” conference October 9-10, 2007 in Arlington, Virginia.

June 19, 2007 — IT service provider Dimension Data Germany is now the exclusive German distributor of Nanoident‘s multimodal biometric security solutions for corporate home offices. Dimension Data will also provide installation services and configuration for customer-specific applications. In connection with the companies’ agreement, Dimension Data was able to secure a pilot project with a large global bank in Germany and successfully implement the technology, which it says is highly scalable and cost effective.

Linz, Austria-based Nanoident Biometrics GmbH promises the most reliable and secure biometrics products available, with multimodal sensor hardware and biometric software algorithms, to support a wide range of biometric trait recognition including face, voice and lip movement, iris, fingerprint, skin tissue structure, vein patterns, and palm. This promises recognition accuracy, fraud resistance, and identity-theft protection.

June 19, 2007 – The Belgian company Solvay Solexis, provider of high value-added specialty polymer products, and Thin Film Electronics ASA of Oslo, Norway, have agreed to jointly develop materials for the production of printed electronic devices. The partners’ goal is to optimize ferroelectric polymer materials to enhance the manufacture and performance of Thin Film’s memory technology; and to develop appropriate ink formulations for printed electronics.

Printed electronics is an emerging industry that takes advantage of traditional printing technologies to manufacture electronic devices in a variety of shapes and supports (including thin, flexible substrates) heretofore not possible—at high volume and low cost. The field promises to make possible such applications as interactive and animated print advertising, speech-enabled food packaging, or museum tickets with embedded interactive information for visitors. Low-cost mobile Internet devices combined with a GPS tracking function are also feasible and could be implemented for life-size games or to keep track of children in large open spaces.

Johan Carlsson, CEO of Thin Film Electronics says, “Solvay has the broadest range of high performance polymer products in the market. Their dedication and focus is on specialty polymers, fluorinated and non fluorinated.” Carlsson adds that the collaboration, “gives us a solid partner with the know-how and the resources needed for optimizing and enhancing ferroelectric polymers for memory implementations, both the printed and the hybrid Silicon-based. In addition, with this agreement we have secured a long term supply of polymer materials for large volumes, as and when our customers are ramping up volume production.”

The joint development agreement will build on Thin Film’s intellectual property for soluble memory materials, as well as extend Solvay’s intellectual property for functional polymer materials. Under the agreement, Solvay Solexis could acquire certain production and commercialization rights to Thin Film’s memory technology.

June 18, 2007 — The ISE-CCM Nanotechnology Index (ISE: TNY) is up 1.01% year to date, versus 8.76% for the S&P 500, 10.39% for the DJIA, and 8.17% for the NASDAQ, reports Cronus Capital Markets (CCM), which created the index in partnership with the International Securities Exchange (ISE) in New York.

TNY is composed of 17 nanotechnology companies, including Cabot Corp. (NYSE: CBT), Headwaters Inc. (NYSE: HW), Symyx Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: SMMX), and FEI COMPANY (NASDAQ: FEIC).

CCM CEO Michael Soni says, “monthly index reports are an important feature of CCM’s Index Support Program, especially for an index like TNY which covers an important aspect of the capital markets and receives significant investor interest.” CCM Index Reports — which cover index descriptions, objectives, volatility analysis, performance returns, product specifications, component breakdowns, and component profiles with news links — include the TNY report.

The NAT-31 inspection system works with J microTechnology’s probe station. (Photo: J microTechnology)

June 18, 2007 — J microTechnology, Inc., specialists in electrical and mechanical test products for advanced semiconductor and packaged devices, has introduced the NAT-31 42X-540X Microscope Inspection System with USB 2.0 camera. The $7000 system, based on high-clarity zoom optics, resolves features of 1 micron or less when added to a J microTechnology probe station, thus providing a cost-effective, versatile solution for clinical, life science, materials science, semiconductor, and education professionals.

The system’s zoom optics have a 0.7X-4.5X objective lens providing magnification of 42X-270X for probe placement and device under test (DUT) alignment with the standard 0.5X auxiliary lens. Removal of the auxiliary lens changes the range of magnification to 84X-540X for inspection and fine geometry probing. It comes with a 2X relay lens and a 0.5X or 1.0X (no lens) objective multiplier. A long working distance — of 108mm (4.25″) for the 540X optics and 189mm (7.4″) for the 270X option — allows for flexibility with fixtures.

“This product was requested by our university customers who wanted to be able to use our probe stations and needed both normal probe placement magnification and high power magnification, but didn’t want the expense of a short working distance optical viewing microscope,” said Louis Schappacher, applications specialist for J microTechnology.

Loadstar uses a feather to indicate iLoad’s sensitivity. (Photo: Loadstar Sensors)

June 15, 2007 — The iLoad series of digital load/force sensors from Loadstar Sensors, Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. incorporates patented capacitive sensing technology enabled by nanomaterial for super sensitivity and ruggedness.

The iLoad series is available in 10, 50, 100, 250 and 500 lb capacities to measure both compressive and tensile loads and offer accuracies of 0.25% to 0.025% of full scale loads. Higher capacities up to 15,000 lbs will be released in the coming months and available earlier for special order.

The sensors combine sensing with integrated computing and communications modules for “plug and sense” simplicity and ease of use in a low-profile package. Loadstar says the iLoad Digital USB is the world’s first capacitive load sensor with USB output. With all electronics integrated, it requires no additional signal conditioning, data acquisition or special software. It appears as a virtual COM port on a PC enabling a user to directly read data using simple ASCII commands, and Loadstar’s software that takes care of all communication functions and displays loads in lbs, Kgs or Newtons.

“Communication features integrated within the sensor enable a whole new set of computerized applications that were not possible earlier,” said Div Harish, the Co-Founder and CEO of Loadstar Sensors.

June 14, 2007 — Reactive NanoTechnologies, Inc. (RNT), developer and manufacturer of its patented NanoFoil, announced it has secured $14.3M in a Series C round of financing led by Siemens Venture Capital and existing investor, Sevin Rosen Funds.

NanoFoil, a reactive nano-layered material that precisely controls the instantaneous release of heat energy for joining and reaction initiation applications, enables rapid joining of similar and dissimilar materials without incurring thermal damage. The company will use the funds to expand global sales, marketing and distribution, and for ongoing applications engineering and development.