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Dec. 1, 2006 — Altair Nanotechnologies Inc., a provider of advanced nanomaterials for use in alternate energy, life sciences and industrial applications, announced that it has completed the first phase of a research project on workplace nanomaterial exposure characterization in conjunction with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related injury and illness.

Altairnano embarked on a program in 2005 to develop a substantial body of data regarding its products. By creating partnerships and working with recognized industry experts, academia and public research institutes, such as NIOSH and the University of Nevada at Reno (UNR), the company says it trying to set high product stewardship standards.

Although Altairnano’s materials have particle sizes measured in nanometers, the nature of the process and the materials is such that these nanoparticles naturally cluster together into agglomerates that are measured in microns — thousands of nanometers — rendering the handling and control characteristics of the materials more like traditional “bulk” chemicals, according to the company. Altair says research investigations with NIOSH are continuing to confirm the nature and behavior of Altairnano’s materials, and to validate that traditional control methods provide good worker protection.

In early 2006, NIOSH visited Altairnano’s manufacturing facility in Reno, Nevada and monitored workplace air quality and chemical handling techniques. NIOSH conducted this technical visit as part of its research program to visit multiple facilities to gain better understanding of the possible occupational safety and health implications and applications of nanotechnology. Based on their studies NIOSH recommended a combination of a few minor procedural changes and some longer-term engineering control improvements that could be made in the factory. Altairnano has implemented the procedural changes, has made some initial engineering control changes, and is planning on more extensive controls in part of its process.

Altairnano says is complementing the partnership with NIOSH by conducting further studies of the environment and human interaction with nanomaterials in conjunction with other recognized experts. This includes a recently announced DOE funded project to investigate the interaction of Altairnano’s nanomaterials with various non-aqueous environments.

Dec. 1, 2006 — EV Group (EVG), a St. Florian, Austria, supplier of wafer-bonding and lithography equipment for the advanced packaging, MEMS and semiconductor markets, and Sonix Inc., a supplier of advanced acoustic NDT solutions for bonded wafers & MEMS, announced they are joining forces as Sonix selects EVG as their exclusive worldwide reseller/distributor of selected Sonix products.

In addition to the EVG product portfolio, EVG will now offer Sonix Wafer Acoustic Microscopes. As a result of this agreement, Sonix and EVG said they are committed as strategic partners in providing the most innovative and technologically advanced solutions for bonding wafers and non-destructive acoustic inspection systems for all wafer level integration and packaging from R&D to production.

Sonix Inc., in Springfield,Virgina, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Danaher Corporations, is a manufacturer of scanning acoustic microscopes and non-destructive testing equipment.

Dec. 1, 2006 — FEI Co. of Hillsboro, Ore., announced it will expand its Helios NanoLab family of DualBeams when it introduces the Helios NanoLab 400 and 400S systems next week at SEMICON Japan.

The systems combine focused ion beam (FIB) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) technologies in a single platform that is designed to provide semiconductor manufacturers with a complete range of advanced high-resolution solutions for their analytical labs.

The Helios NanoLab family features a new ultra-high resolution field emission SEM column combined with FEI’s Sidewinder FIB column and gas chemistries to provide up to 40 percent improvement in imaging resolution compared to previous DualBeam systems, according to FEI. These systems feature greatly enhanced low-kV SEM resolution to support cross-sectional imaging and analysis and advanced STEM applications for devices featuring new materials and sub-65 nm design nodes. They also provide enhanced stability and optimized operation within a wide range of parameters.

The Helios NanoLab 400 offers an advanced high resolution stage and load lock and the 400S is equipped with a flip stage for highly precise sample localization to bridge the SEM-TEM gap. The 600 system, introduced earlier this year, offers a larger stage for versatile sample handling.

Nov. 30, 2006 — Veeco Instruments Inc., a Woodbury, N.Y., supplier of instrumentation to the nanoscience community, announced the release of the Wyko NT9300 and NT9800 Optical Profilers.

The company says the new NT optical profilers are ideal for non-contact surface metrology in a wide range of demanding industrial, research, and production applications including automotive, aerospace, semiconductor, MEMS, and biomedical devices.

The ninth-generation NT9300 and NT9800 profilers combine an innovative illumination system, and an industry proven platform to measure topographies from 0.1-nanometer to 10-millimeters to significantly extend non-contact surface measurement capabilities for materials analysis, quality assurance, and the process development and monitoring cycle. A novel harmonic drive scan mechanism and Veeco’s exclusive Laser Reference signal for Z position feedback provide unparalleled performance, scan accuracy and resolution.

John Wissinger, vice president of Veeco’s Optical/Industrial business, said the company’s new profilers deliver the power, resolution and accuracy demanded by the company’s most discriminating customers. “The design innovations in these instruments greatly reduce the number of moving parts, which increases uptime and improves long-term cost of ownership,” he said in a prepared statement.

Nov. 30, 2006 — NanoOpto Corp. and MOXTEK Inc. announced they will jointly develop a suite of nanotechnology-based optical products for various consumer electronics markets.

The companies say the relationship will enhance both companies’ abilities to meet the increasing demand from various high-volume consumer electronics markets for optical component parts such as nano-polarizers, nano-trim retarders, and nano-polarization beam splitters. Initially, the companies will support applications addressing the projection display and consumer product manufacturing systems markets where nano-optical components are an excellent fit. Sampling of product prototypes from the joint work will begin this year.

NanoOpto is applying novel design methods and proprietary nano-fabrication technology to produce a broad range of unique optical components that enable higher quality, low-cost optical components and systems. MOXTEK manufactures exclusively, using its own proprietary nano-fabrication technology, wire-grid polarizers for leading rear-projection TV manufacturers and other OEM manufacturers working in the range of the Ultra-Violet through the Infra-red to a world-wide market.

MOXTEK’s high-volume manufacturing is capable of delivering over 25,000 8–inch wafers of nano-photonics materials and devices per month, according to a company statement. MOXTEK also has a division which manufacturers X-ray components and sub-systems for industrial and analytical applications. NanoOpto serves customers across a particularly broad application set including digital imaging, displays, telecom, and the government/military sector.

Nov. 30, 2006 — Veeco Instruments Inc., a supplier of instrumentation to the nanoscience community, announced the launch of the new Dektak 150 Surface Profiler for high-performance research and industrial metrology applications.

The company says the Dektak 150 delivers the highest repeatability and lowest noise over the largest scanning range available for a stylus profiler, enabling Veeco’s customers to benefit from greater scan range and ease-of-use.

The modular design of the Dektak 150 enables it to be configured to meet stringent application requirements. The compact system is designed to accommodate samples up to 100 millimeters thick and performs long scans of 55 millimeters. The company says the half-millimeter vertical range is industry-leading standard Z performance, and a 1-millimeter option extends the vertical capabilities even further. With sub-nanometer step-height repeatability, the Dektak 150 accurately measures step-heights for thin films below 10 nanometers thick, up to nearly one-millimeter thick-films.

Nov. 28, 2006 — InvenSense, a Santa Clara, Calif., provider of integrated motion sensing solutions for mobile applications, announced that its family of integrated dual-axis gyroscopes (IDGs) is currently being manufactured in high volume and is being shipped to a number of Japanese, Taiwanese, and American original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The company said its gyroscopes have been designed into a number of high-volume consumer applications, ranging from digital still cameras (DSCs) to 3-D remote controllers.

InvenSense says its technology and products are part of a roadmap that will ultimately result in a single-chip inertial measurement unit (IMU) during 2007 that will enable next generation, feature-rich, consumer electronics with advanced motion sensing capabilities. By achieving sub-one dollar per axis for the IMU, InvenSense will provide a compelling and appealing price point for many consumer products making it an integral element within a host of new motion sensing applications.

InvenSense says it is leveraging its proprietary MEMS design and fabrication technology, protected by more than 12 patents, to produce a whole new generation of MEMS-based products utilizing cost effective wafer-scale integration and packaging. These advances have resulted in lower production costs to achieve a very low-cost single chip solution comprised of two gyroscopes (X-axis and Y-axis) with integrated electronics.

The company has transferred its technology to a high volume MEMS foundry and says it can produce thousands of gyroscope sensors on a single 6-inch wafer with integrated compensating electronics capable of addressing mass market consumer demands. InvenSense’s gyroscopes are manufactured using a bulk silicon micromachining process, which offers several key advantages in sensitivity and performance while ensuring consistent, reliable and higher yielding devices. This methodology eliminates the need for custom processes, meaning many commercially available foundries can manufacture the devices easily and inexpensively.

Nov. 28, 2006 — Hyphenated Systems, a Burlingame, Calif., provider of hybrid microscopy solutions for three-dimensional imaging and metrology in micro and nanotechnology, announced the release of its new HS200A NanoScale Optical Profiler. The company says the HS200A adds extensive automation capability to the Hyphenated Systems workhorse — the HS200OP — for fast, repeatable non-destructive analyses in critical metrology, inspection, failure analysis and quality control applications.

The system incorporates Hyphenated Systems’ Advanced Confocal Microscopy (ACM) technology that acquires and displays high-resolution (<50nm) three-dimensional images in seconds. The HS200 systems also provide the user with all the capabilities and flexibility of a fully functional, research-grade binocular optical microscope. The system is intended for 3D imaging and metrology of rough or sloped surfaces of MEMS and other semiconductor devices, or imaging subsurfaces through transparent materials.

“Adding automation makes it an even more valuable tool in applications that require a large number of repetitive, routine operations,” said Terence Lundy, Hyphenated Systems’ vice president and general manager, in a prepared statement. “Unlike other 3D metrology techniques, such as scanned laser confocal or interferometry, the HS200OP series also provides the user with a versatile optical microscope, offering a real, viewable optical image and all of the ancillary imaging and analysis capabilities that optical microscopy can support.”


Hyphenated Systems’ new optical profiler is designed for fast, repeatable non-destructive analyses in critical metrology, inspection, failure analysis and quality control applications.

The NanoScale Optical Profiler acquires a series of images that slice through the sample at varying heights, then combines these images into a three-dimensional model of the sample. Its ability to collect data simultaneously through multiple confocal apertures greatly accelerates the data acquisition process, allowing it to construct and display 3D images in seconds.

The company says the new automation capabilities of the HS200A add more speed to routine tasks and improve the repeatability of measurements by removing the variability associated with the operator. The HS200A can move the sample to predefined locations, find features of interest and acquire measurements — without operator intervention, and without the variability introduced by operator judgment, differences between operators, or operator fatigue.

Nov. 29, 2006 — NaturalNano Inc., a materials science company, announced the introduction of its Pleximer product line. The company said Pleximer, which NaturalNano plans to offer commercially in fourth quarter 2007, is a turnkey nanocomposite additive enabling stronger, lighter materials for the $40 billion dollar polymer composite industry.

“We believe the advantage of the Pleximer additive is that it will allow composite manufacturers to produce affordable nanocomposites for the first time,” said Cathy Fleischer, president and CTO of NaturalNano, in a prepared statement. “The nanocomposite market segment is estimated to more than double in size in the next four years. However, many manufacturers to date have been unable to produce nanocomposites because of the necessary up-front investment in expensive, specialized equipment and the complex chemistries involved in the process.”

By contrast, she said, Pleximer can be used with standard processes and equipment and provides a stronger, lighter, and more uniform output. The company says the technology can also be utilized with a broader range of polymers, enabling a wide array of applications.

Pleximer additives consist of halloysite clay nanotubes concentrated and mixed with various polymer materials using the company’s proprietary process. NaturalNano has multiple patents issued and pending on its uses of halloysite nanotubes, including coverage for polymers used as composite material.

Plastics manufacturers currently use nanoclay additives to produce stronger, lighter composites but these improvements come at a high cost. The increased costs result from the complex exfoliation process required in separating the clay layers to obtain good dispersion and uniform properties.

Nov. 28, 2006 — Evans Analytical Group LLC of Sunnyvale, Calif., announced that it has acquired the operations and assets of AMIA Labs.

AMIA provides x-ray based analytical services to high-tech industries, including x-ray diffraction, x-ray fluorescence and x-ray reflectometry. AMIA has developed proprietary techniques for the measurement of texture, stress, composition and thickness on thin films, as well as micro-diffraction capabilities for patterned wafers or specific areas on medical implants and many other manufactured parts.

The companies said AMIA operations and staff will be integrated into EAG’s Round Rock, Texas facility.

“AMIA’s x-ray based techniques are an excellent complement to EAG’s existing suite of analytical methods by providing information on crystallographic phase, orientation and crystallite size of polycrystalline materials and epitaxial films,” said Richard Hockett, Evans Analytical’s chief scientist, in a prepared statement. “Characterization of strained thin films such as SiGe, Si:C, and AlGaN is a significant semiconductor industry issue and EAG is well equipped to meet this need through the acquired x-ray services capabilities, coupled with our existing Raman expertise.”

Founded in 1978, Evans Analytical Group provides microanalytical surface analysis and materials characterization services to identify the overall atomic and physical structure of materials, including chemical composition and chemical bonding, as well as the level and type of trace impurities.

Evans Analytical’s services are used specifically in developing new processes or materials, transferring those processes to production, developing and qualifying new production tools, and solving yield problems in manufacturing. The company says it has a diversified customer base of more than 1,500 high technology companies in the semiconductor, semiconductor equipment, electronics, medical and biotech industries, among others.