Tag Archives: Small Times Magazine


The energy-harvesting ESG-LINK promises to power a sensing system indefinitely without batteries. (Photo: MicroStrain)

June 14, 2007 — MicroStrain, Inc. says its miniaturized energy-harvesting nodes operated successfully in the first-ever flight test of wireless strain sensors for damage tracking of rotating helicopter parts and other critical dynamic components.

MicroStrain’s ESG-LINK energy-harvesting sensing node features a precision time keeper, non-volatile memory for on-board data logging, and frequency agile IEEE 802.15.4 transceiver. Sampling rates, sample durations, sensor offsets, sensor gains and on-board shunt calibration are all wirelessly programmable. It promises to power a sensing system indefinitely, without the need for batteries, by converting the component’s cyclic strains into DC power using piezoelectric materials (patents issued and pending).

Recent flight tests on a Bell Helicopter Model 412 show that MicroStrain’s nodes will operate continually, without batteries, even under low energy generation conditions of straight and level helicopter flight. By continuously monitoring the strains on rotating components, the nodes can record operational loads, compute metal fatigue, and estimate remaining component life.

MicroStrain’s latest adaptive energy harvesting wireless sensors can sample pitch link static and dynamic loads at a rate of 32 samples/sec, then communicate these wireless data into the helicopter cabin, while consuming only 250 microwatts. Compared to conventional Wheatstone bridge signal conditioning electronics (which draw 72 milliwatts), MicroStrain’s node delivers an improvement of 288 fold.

June 13, 2007 — Chipworks, a specialist in reverse engineering and technical analysis of semiconductors and microelectronic systems, and Yole Développement, a MEMS market research and business development consulting company, announce that they will work collaboratively to provide in-depth
business and technical analysis for the MEMS industry.

The first products of their collaboration are a Chipworks Inkjet Printhead technical comparative analysis report and a Yole Développement Inkjet Printhead Market analysis report.

“Together we’ve expanded and scale of the information that we deliver to our customers around the world. This information helps them to achieve a deeper understanding the market trends and evolving technology in the fast-paced and growing MEMS industry,” says Julia Elvidge, president, Chipworks.

The agreement announced today includes knowledge transfer and collaboration on
MEMS industry reports, highly-focused educational events and in-depth seminars.

June 13, 2007 — NemeriX (Manno, Switzerland), a fabless semiconductor company specializing in ultra low-power semiconductors and solutions for GPS and location-based service devices, and Bosch Sensortec Gmbh (Stuttgart, Germany), supplier of MEMS sensors for consumer markets, announce the successful integration of their technology to deliver a multi-sensing GPS solution. The new system promises significantly enhanced results for navigating urban stacked road systems, and multi-level bridges and tunnels.

The system integrates Bosch’s high-resolution SMD500 pressure sensor with NemeriX’s high-accuracy navigation solution, offering the ability to identify if a vehicle is traveling on the upper or lower levels in a multi-level or stacked road, and greatly enhancing turn-by-turn navigation in situations where traffic is traveling in the same direction on different levels of a road system, or where two-way traffic is accommodated.

By enabling fast and accurate determination of altitude in a way that is not possible simply by tracking a user’s speed or direction, the technology facilitates timely notification of approaching exits on stacked roads, and early detection of wrong exits when two roads are separating in almost parallel directions, but with different slopes.

Even with high-performance GPS systems, vertical accuracy is typically lower than the horizontal accuracy. This effect can be aggravated when the lower road is obstructed by the higher road, causing very high multipath that further degrades vertical accuracy. The Bosch-NemeriX collaboration enables vertical performance improvement to the level where a typical road-to-road vertical distance of 10 meters or more can be unambiguously resolved.

By combining high-resolution barometric air pressure measurement data with non-biased, lower resolution GPS-derived altitude, the two companies say they have delivered a solution to the altitude conundrum within performance, cost, size and power consumption parameters that have not been seen before.

June 12, 2007 — The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has notified NVE Corporation, Eden Prairie, Minn., of the expected grant of a patent titled “Thermomagnetically Assisted Spin-Momentum-Transfer Switching Memory,” relating to magneto-thermal and spin-momentum transfer MRAM inventions.

Magnetothermal MRAM uses a combination of ultra-fast magnetic fields and heat pulses, both from electrical current. Spin-momentum transfer is a method of changing the spin of storage electrons directly with an electrical current rather than an induced magnetic field. Both technologies may have the potential to reduce the energy required to write data and allow reduction of the memory cell size while maintaining thermal stability.

The grant brings NVE’s U.S. patent total to 42. The company has more than 100 patents worldwide issued, pending, or licensed from others. Links to the new patent and NVE’s other U.S.patents can be found at the “About NVE” section of the company’s Website.

NVE is a leader in commercialization of spintronics, a nanotechnology that many experts believe represents the next generation of microelectronics. NVE licenses its MRAM intellectual property and sells spintronic products, including sensors and couplers, to revolutionize data sensing and transmission.


The Expida 1255S provides “single system simplicity.” (Photo: FEI Co.)

June 12, 2007 — FEI Company has introduced the next-generation tool in its DualBeam product family, the Expida 1255S. It is the only DualBeam system to integrate wafer level STEM (scanning/transmission electron microscopy) sample preparation with ultra-high-resolution imaging and analysis in a single tool. The Expida 1255S features an advanced ion beam column for preparing TEM samples, and an enhanced electron column with a 14-segment STEM detector for high-resolution 30kV imaging.

Until now, advanced sample preparation and handling often caused frustrating delays and required the use of multiple systems and processes to create high-quality TEM samples. The Expida 1255S assures correct end-pointing and precise lamella thickness by enabling STEM imaging while milling the TEM sample to its final location and required thickness.

The new Expida system addresses the requirements of high-throughput STEM imaging and analysis for sub-45 nanometer process control. With its speed, accuracy and integrated operation, the Expida 1255S delivers complete sets of data faster, and ultimately delivers faster time to market and a faster ramp to volume production.

“Semiconductor labs supporting process control for volume manufacturing have often been caught in a bind,” explains Tony Edwards, vice president of FEI’s NanoElectronics market division. “Time-efficient SEM tools lacked the necessary magnification and resolutions for today’s device designs while higher-resolution STEM and TEM systems required time-consuming sample preparation. FEI’s innovations in DualBeam and electron microscopy have enabled us to deliver this faster and simpler solution for semiconductor manufacturers.”

By Hugh G. Willett, Small Times contributing editor

June 11, 2007 — The ability to lay down ultra-thin layers of a variety of nanoscale materials is primarily being used to increase the wear resistance of materials used in industrial, medical, and automotive applications, according to Dr. Tim VanderWood, executive director of MVA Scientific Consultants, Duluth Ga. But the opportunities in nanocoating will grow with the increasing capabilities to create thinner layers of a wider variety of materials within tighter tolerances.

MVA uses tools such as transmission electron microscopes (TEM)s to measure nanoscale coatings on a variety of materials used to manufacture glass, car paints and even variable pigments in dollar bills, VanderWood said. “During the R&D phase you can call on our lab to characterize the film cross section,” he noted. “We are also used in manufacturing for quality control.”

MVA has been working with customers helping to characterize a variety of color pigment-related nanocoating technologies that are already in production. The company has helped the U. S. Treasury Department develop variable pigments that are used in paper money and has also worked with paint companies to develop automobile paints with nano-layered pigments and coatings that can change colors when observed from different angles.

“We’re also working with architectural glass companies to develop nanoscale coatings on glass in multiple layers,” he said. These ultra-thin coatings can add UV protection, color and other properties to the glass, he explained.

Among the biggest challenges in the future of nanocoating is the capability to make sure the layers bond properly with the substrate, VanderWood added.

Another example of where nanocoating technology is headed can be found in C3 International LLC of Alpharetta, Ga., which has developed a technology platform to lay down at low temperatures on any inorganic substrate as many as 58 different elements or combination of elements in layers as thin as a few nanometers within tolerances of as little as 2 to 4%.

The C3 technology is currently used primarily to create thin layers of highly wear-resistant materials such as cubic zirconium that extend the life and increase the speed capabilities of industrial tooling. C3’s nanocoating techniques can deposit cubic zirconium crystals finer and denser than other methods such as CVD allow: 3 nanometers compared with 50 nanometers.

And the future offers more exciting possibilities. The ability to maintain tight tolerances at low cost is key to breaking into the new applications where C3 will compete against ion-implantation, chemical vapor deposition and other established technologies, said Mark Deininger, founder and CEO of C3.

C3 is a $100 million company today. In four years the company expects a valuation in the range of $2 billion, largely the result of licensing the technology for use in new applications in electronics, space research and energy, Deininger said.

Three key target areas are meta-materials, multi-ferrics, and layered dielectric and conductive materials. C3 expects that within several years, its technology will be used in applications including CMOS metal interconnect, copper interconnect, flash memory, magnetic memories, batteries, and capacitors.

The C3 technology is also much faster and less expensive in a manufacturing environment than techniques such as growing layers on the substrate, Deininger said.

Deininger confirmed that a C3 is addressing a key challenge of bonding the deposited layers to the substrate. A problem with nanocoatings is that they sometimes flake off because of the difference in coefficient of thermal expansion between the layers and the substrate. The technology C3 is using can actually infuse 40 nm to 60 nm into the substrate, he said.

“It’s almost like being able to create a new element,” he added.

The C3 business model is based on technology licensing and partnering. The company is working with Honeywell on petrochemical applications such as a molecular sieve for catalytic processes and with General Electric Energy Systems on solid oxide fuel cells where it is necessary to lay down nanoscale thin layers of electrolyte. The fuel cells have applications in energy research and space exploration.

C3 has proven the concept of its technologies through research at multiple government facilities, and in the coming year will open a 3,000 sq. ft. branch office near Oak Ridge National Lab dedicated to nanotechnology.

June 11, 2007 — ViRexx Medical Corp. of Edmonton, Alberta, a company focused on immunotherapy treatments for certain cancers, chronic hepatitis B & C and embolotherapy treatments for tumors, has signed collaboration agreements with the National Research Council (NRC) Canada’s National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT) and Defence Research and Development Canada Suffield (DRDC Suffield) with networking and financial contribution from NRC-Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP).

Researchers at NINT will study the physical characteristics, as well as immunological and nanoparticle forming properties of a Chimigen Vaccine, produced using ViRexx’s proprietary Chimigen Vaccine platform technology. Meanwhile, researchers at DRDC Suffield continue to study Chimigen for biodefense applications.

“These research collaborations were supported through network and financial contribution from NRC-IRAP which provide us with the opportunity to explore multiple uses of our Chimigen . . . and establish its efficacy as an adaptable platform technology in nanoparticle and biodefence applications,” said Peter Smetek, interim CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of ViRexx Medical Corp.

June 8, 2007– Octillion Corp. of Vancouver, B.C. says that in early models of its photovoltaic NanoPower Windows product, scientists have successfully engineered and assembled a mechanically stable, visually transparent prototype that achieves optically active down-conversion and displays good electrical properties with no electrical shorts. This marks a significant breakthrough in development of a working prototype capable of generating electricity from sunlight without losing significant transparency, explained Mr. Harmel S. Rayat, President and CEO of Octillion Corp.

In developing an early model of the world’s first transparent photovoltaic windows of its kind, Octillion researchers have successfully ‘stacked’ silicon nanoparticles between ultra-thin films of metal, onto a glass substrate. Preliminary tests have shown that this stack is mechanically stable and of even thickness. Tests for optical characterization have demonstrated that the model is a high-quality see-through architecture, important to maintaining maximum transparency of the finished commercial product.

Key to development is a proprietary, fluorescent spray coating of a silicon nanoparticle film that converts the sun’s energy into electricity. The process of producing these silicon nanoparticles is supported by 10 issued US patents, 7 pending US patents, 2 issued foreign counterpart patents and 19 pending foreign counterpart patents. The proprietary process for spraying the particles onto glass surfaces is unique to Octillion, and is among the company’s major research achievements.

In tests of the developmental prototype window, Octillion’s silicon nanoparticle film was able to successfully convert high energy photons into lower energy photons, thus optimizing electrical conversion by preventing high energy photons from being unnecessarily wasted through conversion into heat.

Octillion, together with its wholly owned subsidiaries, is a technology incubator focused on the identification, acquisition, development and eventual commercialization of emerging technologies.


Custom versions of the ABRT are available. (Photo: Aerotech)

June 8, 2007 — Aerotech‘s new ABRT rotary air-bearing stage series is designed to meet the exacting requirements of MEMS/nanotechnology device fabrication, wafer inspection, high-precision metrology, and other such applications.

The stages provide 360-degree continuous travel with resolution to 0.027 arc sec. Plus, the company promises exceptional velocity stability and error motion performance.

Payload capacity is up to 69 kg. The ABRT design features large air-bearing surfaces and preloading for high stiffness and load capacity. This, says Aerotech, produces not only excellent axial and radial error motions (asynchronous is <20 nm for each), but outstanding tilt error motion (asynchronous is <0.04 arc sec) as well. The company promises significantly better performance than other rotary air-bearing tables and spindles allow.

The stage family provides a clear aperture up to 50 mm in diameter that can be used for product feed-through, laser beam delivery, cable clearance, or application-specific requirements. It uses versions of Aerotech’s S-series slotless, brushless motor to maximize positioning performance. Aerotech explains that the S-series motor uses a magnetic circuit design to produce high-torque output with minimal heat generation, and that the slotless design is inherently zero-cogging and torque-ripple-free. Maximum speed is up to 1200 rpm.

Custom versions of the ABRT are available to satisfy rate table and high precision inertial guidance test-stand applications. Other features, such as slip rings and rotary unions, are available.

June 8, 2007 — Helsinki, Finland-based Okmetic Oyj, supplier of silicon wafers for MEMS sensors, reports that it has transferred new highly homogeneous silicon on insulator (SOI) products into production. According to Okmetic’s Senior VP of Product Development Jaakko Montonen, the best tolerances available through bonding is +/-0.5micrometers. But, he claims, “we’ve developed the next-generation product with +/-0.3 micrometer device layer thickness tolerance in 150 mm — based on nine points measurement.”

Montonen explains that the highly uniform new material enables a completely new sensitivity level of MEMS components. In addition to enabling high-end devices, MEMS optimized silicon material is the key for narrow deviations and consequently for improved yield.

“We believe that related to thickness tolerance further improvement is still to be seen even based on current technology base”, says Montonen.

Okmetic focuses on manufacturing and further processing high-quality silicon wafers for the sensor and semiconductor industries. The company has plants in Vantaa, Finland and in Allen, Texas.