June 15, 2006 – Owlstone Nanotech Inc., a maker of nanotechnology-based chemical detection products, announced that it has received four new purchase orders for Owlstone Tourist components and accessories.
The company said it is now servicing seven clients since the product line was launched in May. The Tourist is the first production model chemical detection device from Owlstone based on Owlstone’s micro-machined gas sensor.
Owlstone Nanotech is a subsidiary of Advance Nanotech Inc.
June 14, 2006 – NUCRYST Pharmaceuticals Corp. of Wakefield, Mass., announced that Katherine Turner has been appointed vice president of research.
Turner will be responsible for leading NUCRYST’s pharmaceutical research and will report to Paul Schechter, vice president of drug development and regulatory affairs and chief medical officer.
Most recently Turner served as vice president, validation biology at Biogen Idec Inc., where she directed research in immunology, neurobiology, fibrosis and oncology. Prior to this, she rose through positions of increasing responsibilities at Genetics Institute and its successor, Wyeth, to vice president, immunology and memostasis.
 |
June 13, 2006 – Construction of a $16 million underground nano research building got underway last week in Eugene, Oregon. University of Oregon scientists say the facility will provide a solid foundation for nanotech research, both literally and figuratively.
 |
The building is part of a $76 million Integrative Science Complex (ISC) being built on the UO campus.
The ISC is part of Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI), a consortium that includes the University of Oregon, Oregon State University, Portland State University, Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, and regional high tech companies.
At the groundbreaking ceremony, university and political figures joined philanthropist Lorry I. Lokey, who got to drive the earthmoving equipment that would dig the first shovel full of dirt.
Construction begins with removal of about 2,700 tons of soil and bedrock from the site, but professors Jim Hutchison and Dave Johnson are already looking forward to the benefits they expect from the new lab.
Hutchison is making a name for himself as the developer of the concept of ‘green nano,’ which includes paying close attention to waste, toxicity and other environmental hazards.
“I can think of high performance measurements we’ve struggled with that we can do now. We’ll anchor our building directly in the bedrock,” Hutchison said.
Instruments used for nanoscience research can do a better job in that bedrock setting, because the vibration level is two to three times lower than the “gold standard” set by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, said one of ONAMI’s co-founders, UO chemistry professor David Johnson.
Called the Eugene formation, it is a kind of underground hard rock mountain that providentially rises up to about 15 feet below the surface of the UO campus, he said.
It was discovered by accident. Another building on campus went down to this rock, but its stability was unknown until a researcher who was making a measurement there thought his instrument was broken, Johnson said.
“To get advantages for funding and get papers published, if you can see things nobody else can see, you’re one step ahead of everyone,” Johnson said.
His own research will certainly benefit from the improved setup. “We have figured out a way to deposit nano layers of elements. By controlling the initial assemblage, we can make new materials that are uniquely structured and this new facility will help us determine the structure and characterize the properties of these materials.”
Hutchison mentioned working with other researchers from academia and industry as a benefit the building will offer, since the building design includes a designated collaboration space at the end of a central corridor along which sensitive instruments are to be located.
“Many experiments are time consuming,” he said, so researchers in forensic art history, condensed matter physics and zebrafish biology, for example, might all end up killing time at the same time and place.
“That’s the kind of interdisciplinary interaction we’re trying to capture in this space. The theme is an intellectual mixing pot. We want to bring people together there to work together.”
They also look forward to working with industry researchers from Hewlett-Packard’s Corvallis campus, FEI Co. of Hillsboro, Ore., and Portland-based ESI, Electro-Scientific Industries.
Lokey founded Business Wire in 1961 and sold it to Berkshire Hathaway in January this year.
Since then, he has given $32 million dollars to the university for projects in education, journalism and science, including $10 million toward the ISC.
Total cost for the research center alone, which will be named the Lorry I. Lokey Laboratories, is about $16 million.
Funding includes $9.5 million in bonds and lottery funds approved by the Oregon Legislature, with the balance to be raised from private gifts and industry partners. From Lokey’s gift, $3 million will go toward the Lokey Laboratories center and the balance toward the Phase 2 building.
In addition to semiconductor, photolithography, nanofabrication and bio-optics labs, the center will house more than 20 high-technology instruments operated by the university’s Center for Advanced Materials Characterization in Oregon (CAMCOR).
CAMCOR has a microanalytical facility, the university electron microscopy facility, materials characterization laboratory and a surface analytical laboratory.
Other ONAMI officials at the ceremony were David Chen, chairman, and Skip Rung, director. UO officials Rich Linton, vice president of research, and president Dave Frohnmayer, and Gov. Ted Kulongoski were also present.
Frohnmayer praised UO science faculty, saying it “includes many of the world’s best in green nanoscience, cognitive neuroscience, and zebrafish research.”
June 13, 2006 – FEI Co. of Hillsboro, Ore., announced that it has received U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) contracts for four Titan scanning/transmission electron microscopes (S/TEMs) developed as part of the TEAM (Transmission Electron Aberration- Corrected Microscope) project announced in November 2004.
The goal of the collaborative TEAM project is to build the highest resolution S/TEM in the world, capable of direct observation and analysis of individual nanostructures at an unprecedented resolution of 0.5 Angstrom.
The first TEAM Titan is expected to ship this month to Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. A second Titan will be sent to CEOS, the TEAM partner that develops both the spherical (Cs) and the chromatic (Cc) aberration correctors for the project. It will be fitted with a Cc corrector before shipping to Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois.
The third and fourth Titans attaining 0.5 Angstrom resolution in TEM and STEM mode and 0.1 eV energy resolution, will ship to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2007 and 2008, respectively, where they will be operated as the temporary TEAM 0.5 and the final TEAM I user instruments within the National Center for Electron Microscopy.
June 13, 2006 – Dimatix Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif., developer and manufacturer of industrial ink jet printheads, precision micropumps and specialized print systems, announced that it has agreed to be acquired by Fuji Photo Film Co. Ltd. The transaction is expected to close in late July.
“For over 20 years, Dimatix has been leading the way in piezoelectric drop-on-demand ink jet technology, and this acquisition represents the next phase in accelerating our growth. We are pleased to have such a significant role in Fuji’s VISION75 strategy, which establishes new growth platforms in digital imaging,” said Dimatix CEO John Batterton in a prepared statement.
Under the terms of the agreement, Fuji will acquire all of Dimatix’s businesses, including its Spectra printing division, located in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and its materials deposition division and MEMS fabrication facility, located in Santa Clara, Calif.
Dimatix’s Spectra printing division develops and manufactures high-performance, piezoelectric printheads, assemblies, components and systems used in a variety of industrial and commercial printing and imaging applications, including wide format graphics, coding and marking, graphic arts, textile, mailing, and product and food decoration. The materials deposition division designs and manufactures systems for the development and jetting of functional fluids, including nanoparticle-based metallic and organic materials, on many types of surfaces. Applications range from microelectronic packaging substrates and flexible or rigid displays to DNA arrays, optical microlenses and a wide array of electronics.
June 12, 2006 – QD Vision Inc. announced it has manufactured a quantum dot display. The company said the monochrome display demonstrates the manufacturability and commercial feasibility of quantum dot technology as a foundation for next generation displays.
The 32-by-64-pixel, red, monochrome QD Display is the size of a cell-phone screen and approximately one-sixteenth of an inch thick. Its device architecture features a layer of quantum dot material sandwiched between two semiconductor regions. The light emission originates from the quantum dots — tiny inorganic semiconductor nanocrystals which were synthesized by chemists at QD Vision’s prototyping facility.
“Production of our first QD Display is an important step toward our goal of developing a commercial manufacturing process for quantum dot displays,” said John Ritter, executive vice president of product development and operations, in a prepared statement. “We are focused on enabling efficient production of the highest-quality displays by continuing to improve on our proprietary materials, developing easily implemented display fabrication techniques, and selecting the right mix of strategic partners.”
June 9, 2006 – Zyvex of Richardson, Texas, and Arkema of Paris announced their intention to strengthen their strategic partnership by jointly developing commercial nanomaterials applications.
Through a new licensing arrangement, Arkema will use Zyvex’s patented Kentera dispersion technology in conjunction with its own multiwall carbon nanotubes. Arkema will also be the exclusive distributor in Europe of Zyvex’s NanoSolve product line.
Arkema produces and distributes high-quality multiwall nanotubes (MWNT). Its production capabilities, opened at the beginning of 2006, currently enable Arkema to manufacture 10 tons per year of high-purity MWNTs at its Lacq, France, site. With this new facility, Arkema is planning a commercial development to fulfill the expectations of converters in the thermoplastics, epoxy resins, elastomers and coating sectors. Progress is also expected in the field of energy in which the use of carbon nanotubes should help manufacture energy-efficient batteries, super-capacitors and fuel cells.
June 9, 2006 – Arryx Inc., a Chicago nanotechnology company, is going to be acquired. The company announced that Haemonetics Corp. of Braintree, Mass., will acquire the outstanding shares of Arryx that it does not already own for $26 million in cash. Haemonetics and Arryx have been collaborating since October 2004 in developing and commercializing proprietary blood separation and processing technologies.
Arryx’s technology uses light to form optical traps to move and manipulate small objects. Using laser beams and holograms, the systems can independently and in parallel hold, move, separate, and otherwise manipulate hundreds of microscopic and nanoscopic objects. Arryx’s first product, the BioRyx 200 system, is used to handle cells and other objects in a laboratory environment.
In an investor conference call yesterday, Haemonetics management said the acquisition could enable the company to be more competitive in its existing markets as well as expand into new markets. The company declined however to name specific markets it intends to enter, citing a desire to keep its plans vague for competitive reasons.
“The acquisition of Arryx is a key component of our strategy to strengthen and diversify our own research initiatives and expand the business by leveraging our core competencies,” said Brad Nutter, Haemonetics’ president and CEO, in a prepared statement. “Nano-separation technology adds to our blood separation competency and provides us with a new technology platform. With Arryx technology and its world class research employees we can see opportunities to broaden our reach into new, adjacent markets.”
The company said it intends to keep all the Arryx staff, which numbers fewer than 20 — about 50 percent of whom are Ph.D. level scientists. It also intends to keep the group located in Chicago.
The company said it expects the transaction to close sometime in August. Investors in Arryx included Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Nanostart, LCMH Technology Investments, Ventures Midwest, ARCH Development Partners, and others.
– David Forman
June 8, 2006 – NanoInk Inc., a company specializing in nanometer-scale manufacturing and applications development for the lifescience and semiconductor industries, announced the election of Alan Holmer to the company’s board of directors.
Holmer was elected by NanoInk’s current board of directors as the company seeks to add seasoned board members with industry experience. With the addition of Mr. Holmer, the NanoInk Board will now consist of six members.
Holmer, 56, is the former president and chief executive officer of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), where he spent nearly ten years leading the organization that represents the interests of leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. He also serves as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS and on the Board of Directors of Inspire Pharmaceuticals.
June 8, 2006 – Veeco Instruments Inc. (Nasdaq: VECO) announced the introduction of its new automated Wyko NT3300 Optical Profiler with DMEMS, or dynamic MEMS, measurement option.
With an increase in the number of unique micro-devices being used in consumer products, the company said the MEMS industry requires metrology tools that can perform both static and dynamic characterization easily and rapidly. “Veeco’s automated NT3300 DMEMS system fills this need, enabling manufacturers to accelerate both product reliability and functional development while driving down costs,” said Jeannine Sargent, executive vice president and general manager of metrology and instrumentation, in a prepared statement.
The DMEMS system utilizes a proprietary stroboscopic illuminator and synchronization electronics package that permits the capture of a series of 3D measurement data, generating a video of the sample device as it cycles through its range of motion. MEMS-focused Wyko Vision software locates features of interest and performs a wide variety of detailed 3D analyses, from determining resonant frequency and shape/distortion to characterizing deflection and other key device parameters.
Other features of the Wyko NT3300 DMEMS optical profiler include angstrom-resolution measurement of features from 0.1 nm to 2 mm in height, a programmable X/Y stage and software for rapid measurement of large surface areas, the ability to ramp intensity to investigate materials with differing reflectivities, and tip/tilt built into the head to eliminate the need to reposition the probe for successive scans.