Tag Archives: Small Times Magazine

July 20, 2006 — ElectroChemical Systems Inc. (ECSI), a Denville, N.J., maker of wet processing equipment for MEMS and other markets, announced a new version of its IKo bench-top electroplater.

The company says its IKo-2W6 bench-top electroplater allows simultaneous processing of multiple two-inch to eight-inch wafers. The machine is capable of electroplating and electroforming two wafers in the same plating solution, with the same or different operating parameters, if needed.

It is intended to be a tool for fast R&D and/or small scale production. The first sale of the machine went to a major supplier of specialty chemicals for electronics and MEMS manufacturers.

In addition, ECSI said it has sold its IKo Classic equipment in Italy, Belgium, Finland and Korea. The system is designed to enable an operator with limited electroplating skills to reliably achieve reproducible results.

July 19, 2006 – Nanophase Technologies, a Romeoville, Ill., maker of nanomaterials and advanced nanoengineered products, announced the commercial availability of nanocrystalline tin oxide produced by the company’s patented NanoArc synthesis process using its most recent advances in finite particle size control.

The company said its NanoArc tin oxide consists of non-porous, dense, discrete particles with an average size of approximately 20 nanometers. The new nanoengineered material is available as solid nanoparticles or as a highly stable dispersion in either aqueous or various organic media at high concentrations. It is expected to be suitable for a wide range of applications, including electrical and electronic components, antistatic coatings, polishing of various media, advanced ceramics and industrial catalysts.

July 19, 2006 – Asylum Research, a Santa Barbara, Calif., manufacturer of atomic force microscopes, announced the availability of its new NanoIndenter module for use with the Asylum Research MFP-3D AFM System.

Unlike cantilever-based nanoindenters, the NanoIndenter drives the nanoindenting tip perpendicular to the sample. And unlike conventional nanoindenters, tip displacement and force are measured with the MFP-3D AFM’s optical detector and the NPS Nanopositioning sensors.

Asylum says the combination results in exquisite force and positioning sensitivity. This allows repeatable imaging, quantitative feature measurement, reliable and accurate imaging offsets, quantitative force curves, and precise positioning for manipulation and lithography.

The NanoIndenter fits on the MFP-3D AFM head for easy viewing of the sample. It is available in two models, Standard and Low Force. The module comes with three standard sample mounts, small, medium and large.

Measurements and surface characterization can be done on many different materials including thin films, coatings, polymers, etc. The company says the NanoIndenter is ideal for a variety of applications including the elastic and inelastic behavior of materials; dislocation phenomena; fractures in ceramics; mechanical behavior of metals, thin films, ceramics, bone, biomaterials, residual stresses; and time dependent mechanical characteristics in soft metals and polymers.

July 19, 2006 – A new report by Andrew Maynard, chief science advisor for the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, calls for significant changes in the U.S. government’s handling of nanotechnology risk research. The study, “Nanotechnology: A Research Strategy for Addressing Risk,” proposes a new framework for systematically exploring possible risks and argues that more money is required.

“Without such an approach,” Maynard said in a prepared statement, “significant knowledge gaps — which currently exist in all areas of nanotechnology risk assessment — will persist.”

According to Maynard’s analysis, as little as $11 million of the more than one billion dollars the U.S. government annually invests in nanotechnology research and development is devoted to highly relevant research into what is safe and what is not.

To fill the gap, Maynard argues that the federal government needs an overarching strategy and comprehensive set of research priorities. Initially, he suggests that these be aimed at identifying and measuring nanomaterials exposure and environmental release, evaluating nanomaterials toxicity, controlling the release of and exposure to engineered nanomaterials, and developing “best practices” for working safely with nanomaterials, and eventually at building capacity in predictive toxicology.

The report maintains that the effort should be led by federal agencies with a clear mandate for oversight and for research of environmental, health and safety (EHS) risk. Maynard estimates that oversight and EHS research agencies need a minimum budget of $50 million per year over the next two years to devote to highly relevant, targeted nanotechnology risk-based research.

This amount is in addition to a complementary investment by federal agencies and departments participating in the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) on basic and applications-focused research that has the potential to help further understanding of nanotechnology risk and to aid in the development of improved research tools.

The report is available online at www.nanotechproject.org.

July 19, 2006 – NanoDynamics, a manufacturer of nanomaterials and nano-enabled products, appointed Jeffrey Jordan as vice president of technology for the company’s NanoCluster Devices Inc. subsidiary.

Formerly project manager for NanoDynamics’ ND Innovations business unit, Jordan will now guide development and commercialization of the company’s advanced nano-cluster based devices for the semiconductor, sensor and electrostatic discharge protection markets.

The company says NanoCluster Devices’ method for fabricating circuits via self-assembling silicon, copper and palladium nanowires would give the electronics industry a more easily adopted route to smaller, faster chips and that it is compatible with standard industry tools and processes.

Jordan joined NanoDynamics from Praxair Inc. where he served as manager of electronics materials for the company’s electronics and analytical R&D division. In that capacity, Jordan led the development and commercialization of atomic layer (ALD) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) precursors for use in semiconductor applications.

July 18, 2006 – NanoInk Inc. announced the appointment of Robert Janosky as the company’s president and chief operating officer. Janosky will be responsible for guiding NanoInk’s operations and will report to Cedric Loiret-Bernal, the company’s chief executive officer.

Janosky brings more than 35 years of operational experience and significant pharmaceutical manufacturing expertise to NanoInk. Most recently, he served as vice president, manufacturing at Cubist Pharmaceuticals, a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing anti-infective therapies for the acute care environment.

Previously, Janosky was vice president, manufacturing at Warner Lambert and also served as the president and general manager of the company’s Puerto Rico location. Additionally he has held other senior management positions with Cardinal Health, Rhone Poulenc-Rorer and Bristol Myers.

July 17, 2006 – Nanogen Inc., a San Diego developer of diagnostic products, announced that it has expanded its product portfolio to include MGB Alert real-time PCR reagents designed to assist laboratories in developing tests that can detect sequences associated with varicella-zoster virus (VZV, also called Human Herpesvirus 3) and Bordetella bacteria.

Vaccines exist for both VZV and Bordetella, but the conditions they cause remain endemic for several reasons. The company says all its MGB Alert products use detection chemistry that enables laboratories to develop multiple assays with universal parameters, increasing the efficiency and throughput of clinical testing.

July 13, 2006 – Zyvex Corp. announced the addition of Rob Burgess as vice president of research and development, and the promotions of Patrick Howard to director of worldwide sales, and Taylor Cavanah to product manager.

Burgess was formerly the director of scientific sourcing and new technologies at Serologicals Corp., a 1000-employee bio tools and reagents company. Howard joined the company in May 2006 as worldwide sales manager.

In late June, Zyvex announced that president Thomas Cellucci had left the company and that chairman and CEO James Von Ehr had reassumed the post of president.

July 13, 2006 – Evident Technologies Inc., a developer of quantum dot applications and products, released two next generation products for use in life science applications: T2-MP EviTag labels and EviFluor conjugates.

The new T2-MP (Molecular Plated) EviTags are quantum dot-based, conjugation-ready fluorescent labels with a bioactive surface that features Evident’s Molecular Plating surface technology. The company says the T2-MP EviTags provide improved brightness, photostability, flexibility and sensitivity and that they enable multiplexing. They are available with either amine or carboxyl terminal groups or with a non-functional bioactive surface.

The new EviFluors are ready-to-use, activated quantum dot conjugates coupled to secondary antibodies and other proteins. They are created from the Molecular Plated EviDot and EviTag technologies and are available conjugated to secondary antibodies, streptavidin and biotin.

T2-MP EviTags and EviFluors are available with Molecular Plating technology in traditional Cadmium Selenide (CdSe) formulations. They are also available in Evident’s proprietary non-cadmium Indium Gallium Phosphide (InGaP) material systems.

July 13, 2006 – SiTime Corp., a privately held start-up focused on developing MEMS silicon resonators, and Jazz Semiconductor, an independent wafer foundry focused primarily on specialty CMOS process technologies, announced a partnership to bring SiTime’s MEMS First silicon mechanical oscillator products to market at Jazz Semiconductor’s 200mm wafer foundry.

The MEMS First products are designed to replace traditional quartz oscillators. SiTime says it is well positioned to enter the timing markets with its MEMS First quartz oscillator replacement devices. The company says the devices can be fabricated using manufacturing techniques and equipment that exist in the silicon semiconductor industry today, which would allow industrial scaling of MEMS in a foundry environment.

Next generation, more integrated solutions will include MEMS oscillator devices and VLSI semiconductor control functions manufactured on the same silicon wafer.