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(December 17, 2010) — Techcet’s Michael A. Fury reports in-depth from sessions at IEDM 2010, held earlier this month in San Francisco, looking at paper 18.3 on a reverse trend from electronic switching back to mechanical switching in the form of MEMS devices. 18.3, "Prospects for MEM Logic Switch Technology (Invited)," was presented by T.-J. King Liu, J. Jeon, R. Nathanael, H. Kam, V. Pott*, E. Alon, University of California, Berkeley, *Institute of Microelectronics.

18.3: Device leakage and RF channel switching are among the problems driving a reverse trend from electronic switching back to mechanical switching in the form of MEMS devices, as presented in an invited talk by Tsu-Jae King Liu of UC Berkeley. A MEMS air gap of 1nm can provide IOn/IOff ~ 1010. Planar plates are used as actuating elements rather than linear mechanical levers; a see-saw configuration guarantees that complementary logic functions can be satisfied. Devices have been shown to endure 1015 cycles, satisfying most wireless applications with a 10-year lifetime. MEMS logic functions can be fabricated with 2×-4× fewer devices than the corresponding CMOS functions.

 

(a) 3D schematic of the see-saw relay structure and definition of design parameters. (b) Schematic cross-sections illustrating complementary operation. (c) SEM views of a fabricated see-saw relay.

Michael A. Fury, Ph.D., reports on a range of talks at IEDM 2010:

He is senior technology analyst at Techcet Group, LLC, P.O. Box 29, Del Mar, CA 92014; [email protected].

Carbon-nanotubes-CNT-sliced


December 17, 2010

(December 17, 2010) — Carbon nanotubes (CNT) have a diameter 1/50,000th the thickness of a human hair. Researchers at Brown University and in Korea have described the dynamics behind cutting single-walled carbon nanotubes. Tubes are compressed from both ends, causing atoms to shoot "sideways" off of the nanotube’s lattice structure.

Figure. High-intensity atomic-level sonic boomlets cause nanotubes to buckle and twist at compression-concentration zones. SOURCE: Kim Lab/Brown University

In a paper published this month in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A, researchers at Brown University and in Korea document for the first time how single-walled carbon nanotubes are cut, a finding that could lead to producing more precise, higher-quality nanotubes. Such manufacturing improvements likely would make the nanotubes more attractive for use in automotive, biomedicine, electronics, energy, optics and many other fields.

"We can now design the cutting rate and the diameters we want to cut," said Kyung-Suk Kim, professor of engineering in the School of Engineering at Brown and the corresponding author on the paper.

The basics of carbon nanotube manufacturing are known. Single-atom thin graphene sheets are immersed in solution (usually water), causing them to look like a plate of tangled spaghetti. The jumbled bundle of nanotubes is then blasted by high-intensity sound waves that create cavities (or partial vacuums) in the solution. The bubbles that arise from these cavities expand and collapse so violently that the heat in each bubble’s core can reach more than 5,000 degrees Kelvin, close to the temperature on the surface of the sun. Meanwhile, each bubble compresses at an acceleration 100 billion times greater than gravity. Considering the terrific energy involved, it’s hardly surprising that the tubes come out at random lengths. Technicians use sieves to get tubes of the desired length. The technique is inexact partly because no one was sure what caused the tubes to fracture.

Materials scientists initially thought the super-hot temperatures caused the nanotubes to tear. A group of German researchers proposed that it was the sonic boomlets caused by collapsing bubbles that pulled the tubes apart, like a rope tugged so violently at each end that it eventually rips.

Kim, Brown postdoctoral researcher Huck Beng Chew, and engineers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology decided to investigate further. They crafted complex molecular dynamics simulations using an array of supercomputers to tease out what caused the carbon nanotubes to break. They found that rather than being pulled apart, as the German researchers had thought, the tubes were being compressed mightily from both ends. This caused a buckling in a roughly five-nanometer section along the tubes called the compression-concentration zone. In that zone, the tube is twisted into alternating 90-degree-angle folds, so that it fairly resembles a helix.

That discovery still did not explain fully how the tubes are cut. Through more computerized simulations, the group learned the mighty force exerted by the bubbles’ sonic booms caused atoms to be shot off the tube’s lattice-like foundation like bullets from a machine gun.

Compression causes nanotubes to buckle and twist and eventually to lose atoms from their lattice-like structure. Source: Huck Beng Chew/Brown University

“It’s almost as if an orange is being squeezed, and the liquid is shooting out sideways,” Kim said. “This kind of fracture by compressive atom ejection has never been observed before in any kind of materials.”

The team confirmed the computerized simulations through laboratory tests involving sonication and electron microscopy of single-walled carbon nanotubes.

The group also learned that cutting single-walled carbon nanotubes using sound waves in water creates multiple kinks, or bent areas, along the tubes’ length. The kinks are "highly attractive intramolecular junctions for building molecular-scale electronics," the researchers wrote.

Huck Beng Chew, a postdoctoral researcher in Brown’s School of Engineering, is the first author on the paper. Myoung-Woon Moon and Kwang Ryul Lee, from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, contributed to the research. The U.S. National Science Foundation and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology funded the work.

Also read: IBM constructs IC along single-walled CNT

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(December 17, 2010 – PRNewswire) — JinkoSolar Holding Co. Ltd. (NYSE: JKS), a vertically integrated solar product manufacturer, entered into a commercial agreement with Innovalight Inc., which manufactures proprietary silicon ink and licenses proprietary processing technology to solar cell manufacturing companies. Under the terms of the agreement, JinkoSolar will purchase silicon ink from Innovalight and license Innovalight’s processing technology to produce solar cells with higher conversion efficiencies.

Innovalight’s proprietary nanotechnology-based silicon ink and processing platform provide a simple upgrade to solar cell manufacturing production lines that boosts the performance of solar cells and lowers production costs. With Innovalight technology, JinkoSolar expects to produce monocrystalline solar cells with conversion efficiencies greater than 18.6% in the first half of 2011.

Guoxiao Yao, CTO and VP at JinkoSolar, commented, "Innovalight’s silicon ink provides a unique, cost-effective solution that is able to significantly improve the efficiency of our solar cells with a simple one-step upgrade to our existing cell production lines."

"JinkoSolar’s strong brand presence across a broad geographic network makes the company an important customer for us," added Conrad Burke, CEO at Innovalight.

JinkoSolar Holding Co. Ltd. (NYSE: JKS) is a vertically integrated solar power product manufacturer with low-cost operations, based in Jiangxi Province and Zhejiang Province in China. JinkoSolar has built a vertically integrated solar product value chain from recovered silicon materials to solar modules. JinkoSolar’s principal products are solar modules, silicon wafers and solar cells. For more information, visit www.jinkosolar.com.

Innovalight is based in Sunnyvale, California. The company manufactures silicon ink and licenses a proprietary process technology to solar cell manufacturing companies. Innovalight is venture capital backed and has received additional development funds from the U.S. Department of Energy. For more information, visit www.innovalight.com.

Also read: What’s behind record-breaking solar cell efficiencies

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(December 17, 2010 – PRNewswire) — JinkoSolar Holding Co. Ltd. (NYSE: JKS), a vertically integrated solar product manufacturer, entered into a commercial agreement with Innovalight Inc., which manufactures proprietary silicon ink and licenses proprietary processing technology to solar cell manufacturing companies. Under the terms of the agreement, JinkoSolar will purchase silicon ink from Innovalight and license Innovalight’s processing technology to produce solar cells with higher conversion efficiencies.

Innovalight’s proprietary nanotechnology-based silicon ink and processing platform provide a simple upgrade to solar cell manufacturing production lines that boosts the performance of solar cells and lowers production costs. With Innovalight technology, JinkoSolar expects to produce monocrystalline solar cells with conversion efficiencies greater than 18.6% in the first half of 2011.

Guoxiao Yao, CTO and VP at JinkoSolar, commented, "Innovalight’s silicon ink provides a unique, cost-effective solution that is able to significantly improve the efficiency of our solar cells with a simple one-step upgrade to our existing cell production lines."

"JinkoSolar’s strong brand presence across a broad geographic network makes the company an important customer for us," added Conrad Burke, CEO at Innovalight.

JinkoSolar Holding Co. Ltd. (NYSE: JKS) is a vertically integrated solar power product manufacturer with low-cost operations, based in Jiangxi Province and Zhejiang Province in China. JinkoSolar has built a vertically integrated solar product value chain from recovered silicon materials to solar modules. JinkoSolar’s principal products are solar modules, silicon wafers and solar cells. For more information, visit www.jinkosolar.com.

Innovalight is based in Sunnyvale, California. The company manufactures silicon ink and licenses a proprietary process technology to solar cell manufacturing companies. Innovalight is venture capital backed and has received additional development funds from the U.S. Department of Energy. For more information, visit www.innovalight.com.

Also read: What’s behind record-breaking solar cell efficiencies

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Follow Photovoltaics World on Twitter.com via editors Pete Singer, twitter.com/PetesTweetsPW and Debra Vogler, twitter.com/dvogler_PV_semi.

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(December 17, 2010) — Highlighted by their adoption in Apple Inc.’s iPhone 4, microelectromechanical system (MEMS) microphones are set to achieve a more than 50% increase in shipments in 2010 and a fourfold rise by 2014, according to the market research firm iSuppli, now part of IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS).

Global MEMS microphone shipments are set to expand to 695.6 million units this year, up 57.7% from 441 million in 2009, as presented in the attached figure. By 2014, shipments will rise to 1.7 billion units, four times the total for 2009.

Global MEMS microphone shipments forecast through 2014 (Millions of units). Source: iSuppli, December 2010
 

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

Millions of units    

201.5

244.6

326.3

441.0

695.6

1014.2

1276.1

1525.2

1737.7

MEMS microphones are tiny microphones that use a pressure-sensitive diaphragm etched on a semiconductor using microelectromechanical technology. They are commonly found in cell phones, headsets, notebook PCs and video cameras, replacing conventional electret condenser microphones (ECM).

"In a major milestone, Apple in 2010 employed MEMS microphones in the iPhone 4, the first time the company used the technology in the iPhone line," said Jérémie Bouchaud, director and principal analyst, MEMS, for iSuppli. "Although Apple previously used MEMS microphones in the fifth-generation iPod nano released in 2009, the company exclusively had been employing ECM technology in the iPhone line. With this move, Apple in 2010 will become the world’s second-largest buyer of MEMS microphones, behind Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. Apple was the sixth largest buyer in 2009."

Although they are significantly more expensive than ECM devices, MEMS microphones provide a host of advantages in terms of size, scalability, temperature stability, and sound quality.

The iPhone 4 incorporates two separate MEMS microphones for noise suppression, a technique that reduces background sounds to improve the clarity of voice communications. Although noise suppression has been available since 2006, the arrival of Motorola Inc.’s Droid as well as the iPhone 4 has caused the popularity of the technology — and of MEMS microphones — to soar. The majority of smart phones by 2014 will use two or more MEMS microphones.

The mobile handset market in 2010 is the largest consumer of MEMS microphones, ahead of notebook PCs. Headsets will form the third largest user of MEMS microphones, due to their use by Apple. By 2014, mobile handsets and notebook PCs will still be the largest application for MEMS microphones, followed by slate-type tablets, such as Apple’s iPad.

MEMS microphone products:

Since establishing the business in 2003, MEMS microphone pioneer Knowles Electronics has maintained market dominance, with the company set to account for more than 80% of shipments this year. The company has benefitted from its strong intellectual property (IP) portfolio. However, competition is rising, with 3 of the world’s 5 largest MEMS microphone suppliers now being Asian suppliers of conventional ECM: AAC Acoustic Technologies Holdings Inc., BSE Co. Ltd. and Hosiden Corp. All of these traditional ECM suppliers recently added MEMS microphones to their portfolio. These companies buy MEMS die from Infineon Technologies, package and sell them, using their existing channels. Analog Devices Inc. is the only other pure MEMS company in the Top 5.

An International Trade Commission ruling in November 2010 should make it easier for newcomers to compete with Knowles. A commission judge ruled that Knowles’s silicon microphone patents were invalid.

For more information on this topic, see iSuppli’s upcoming report, entitled: MEMS Microphones Gain Volume in 2010 and Set to Make More Noise.

iSuppli market research reports help deliver vital information on the status of the entire electronics value chain. iSuppli’s MEMS & Sensors market research provides up-to-date, insightful coverage of the consumer, automotive, and high-value markets for MEMS, or microelectromechanical sensors. For more information, visit www.isuppli.com

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(December 16, 2010 – BUSINESS WIRE) — Syndiant, maker of high-resolution microdisplays for pico projectors, is expanding its global reach to include offices in the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park.

The Hong Kong office will be led by Dr. Dennis Cheng, and will be used for close R&D collaboration with technology partners and prestigious universities in Hong Kong and South China. Additionally, the office is in close proximity to key customers in Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

Syndiant’s new office is located at Unit 315A, 3/F, Enterprise Place, No. 5 Science Park West Avenue, Hong Kong Science Park, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Science and Technology Park has 20 state-of-the-art buildings on a 22 hectare campus. Since its inception, the Park has become home to more than 300 technology companies.

Syndiant manufactures small, high-resolution light-modulating chips used in pico projectors small enough to embed in a cell phone. Syndiant’s patented VueG8 technology provides a large screen experience in handheld electronics, such as smartphones, notebook computers, portable media players, video game consoles and cameras. For more information, visit www.syndiant.com.

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(December 16, 2010) — Channels in transmembrane proteins are small enough to allow ions or molecules of a certain size to pass through, while keeping out larger objects. Artificial fluidic nanochannels that mimic the capabilities of transmembrane proteins are highly prized for advanced technologies in biomedical, battery, and other technology sectors. However, it has been difficult to make individual artificial channels of this nanoscale size, until research performed by the US DOE’s Berkeley Lab.

Schematic of a 2nm nanochannel device, with two microchannels, ten nanochannels and four reservoirs. (Image courtesy of Chuanhua Duan)

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have been able to fabricate nanochannels that are only 2nm in size, using standard semiconductor manufacturing processes. Already they’ve used these nanochannels to discover that fluid mechanics for passages this small are significantly different not only from bulk-sized channels, but even from channels that are merely 10nm in size.

"We were able to study ion transport in our 2nm nanochannels by measuring the time and concentration dependence of the ionic conductance," says Arun Majumdar, director of DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), who led this research while still a scientist at Berkeley Lab. "We observed a much higher rate of proton and ionic mobility in our confined hydrated channels — up to a fourfold increase over that in larger nanochannels (10 to 100nm). This enhanced proton transport could explain the high throughput of protons in transmembrane channels."

Majumdar is the co-author with Chuanhua Duan, a member of Majumdar’s research group at the University of California (UC) Berkeley, of a paper on this work, which was published in the journal Nature Nanotechnlogy. The paper is titled "Anomalous ion transport in 2nm hydrophilic nanochannels."

In their paper, Majumdar and Duan describe a technique in which high-precision ion etching is combined with anodic bonding to fabricate channels of a specific size and geometry on a silicon-on-glass die. To prevent the channel from collapsing under the strong electrostatic forces of the anodic bonding process, a thick (500nm) oxide layer was deposited onto the glass substrate.

Chuanhua Duan was part of a successful Berkeley Lab effort to fabricate nanochannels that measured only two nanometers in size, using standard semiconductor manufacturing processes. (Photo by Roy Kaltschmidt, Berkeley Lab Public Affairs)

"This deposition step and the following bonding step guaranteed successful channel sealing without collapsing," says Duan. "We also had to choose the right temperature, voltage and time period to ensure perfect bonding. I compare the process to cooking a steak, you need to choose the right seasoning as well as the right time and temperature. The deposition of the oxide layer was the right seasoning for us."

The nanometer-sized channels in transmembrane proteins are critical to controlling the flow of ions and molecules across the external and internal walls of a biological cell, which, in turn, are critical to many of the biological processes that sustain the cell. Like their biological counterparts, fluidic nanochannels could play critical roles in the future of fuel cells and batteries.

"Enhanced ion transport improves the power density and practical energy density of fuel cells and batteries," Duan says. "Although the theoretical energy density in fuel cells and batteries is determined by the active electrochemical materials, the practical energy density is always much lower because of internal energy loss and the usage of inactive components. Enhanced ion transport could reduce internal resistance in fuel cells and batteries, which would reduce the internal energy loss and increase the practical energy density."

The findings by Duan and Majumdar indicate that ion transport could be significantly enhanced in 2nm hydrophilic nanostructures because of their geometrical confinements and high surface-charge densities. As an example, Duan cites the separator, the component placed between the between the cathode and the anode in batteries and fuel cells to prevent physical contact of the electrodes while enabling free ionic transport.

"Current separators are mostly microporous layers consisting of either a polymeric membrane or non-woven fabric mat," Duan says. "An inorganic membrane embedded with an array of 2nm hydrophilic nanochannels could be used to replace current separators and improve practical power and energy density."

Artificial fluidic nanochannels, like these 30nm channels shown under fluorescence, mimic the capabilities of transmembrane proteins and are highly prized for advanced technology applications. (Image courtesy of Majumdar group)

The 2nm nanochannels also hold promise for biological applications because they have the potential to be used to directly control and manipulate physiological solutions. Current nanofluidic devices utilize channels that are 10 to 100nm in size to separate and manipulate biomolecules. Because of problems with electrostatic interactions, these larger channels can function with artificial solutions but not with natural physiological solutions.

"For physiological solutions with typical ionic concentrations of approximately 100 millimolars, the Debye screening length is 1nm," says Duan. "Since electrical double layers from two-channel surfaces overlap in our 2nm nanochannels, all current biological applications found in larger nanochannels can be transferred to 2nm nanochannels for real physiological media."

The next step for the researchers will be to study the transport of ions and molecules in hydrophilic nanotubes that are even smaller than 2nm. Ion transport is expected to be even further enhanced by the smaller geometry and stronger hydration force.

"I am developing an inorganic membrane with embedded sub-2nm hydrophilic nanotube array that will be used to study ion transport in both aqueous and organic electrolytes," Duan says. "It will also be developed as a new type of separator for lithium-ion batteries."

This work was supported by DOE’s Office of Science, plus the Center for Scalable and Integrated Nanomanufacturing, and the Center of Integrated Nanomechanical Systems at UC Berkeley.

Berkeley Lab is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory located in Berkeley, CA. It conducts unclassified scientific research and is managed by the University of California for the DOE Office of Science. Visit http://www.lbl.gov.

More info:

Arun Majumdar: http://www.me.berkeley.edu/faculty/majumdar/
ARPA-E: http://arpa-e.energy.gov/
Center for Scalable and Integrated Nanomanufacturing (SINAM): http://www.sinam.org/
Center of Integrated Nanomechanical Systems (COINS): http://mint.physics.berkeley.edu/coins/

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(December 16, 2010) — Speaker Armin W. Knoll, IBM Research, will share insights on use of nanofabrication techniques to make 3D structures during the keynote address at Pan Pacific 2011, January 18-20 in Hawaii.

Charles Bauer, Ph.D., TechLead Corporation, chairs. The keynote will be in the Mauka room on the 18th at 4:45-5:30pm. The keynote abstract is below.

"3D Nanofabrication Using Heated Probes – Towards MHZ Patterning Rates"
A. W. Knoll, P. Paul, F. Holzner, M. Despont, U. Duerig, and J. L. Hedrick, IBM Research

Abstract: A high throughput high-resolution probe based patterning method is presented using organic resists that respond to the presence of a hot tip by local material decomposition and desorption. Thereby arbitrarily shaped patterns can be written in the organic films in the form of a topographic relief. Fabrication of three dimensional patterns is done in a single patterning step by controlling the amount of material removal. Recent progress enables patterning rates of 400 kHz and read-back rates of >600 kHz, limited only by the mechanical response of the cantilever. Both the polymer decomposition dynamics and the mechanical stability of the setup allow scaling to higher frequencies of 1 MHz or above. The new technique offers a cost-effective and competitive alternative to high-resolution electron-beam lithography in terms of both resolution and speed.

About the speaker: Armin Knoll received a Master’s degree in experimental physics from the University of Wuerzburg, Germany (1998) and the Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Bayreuth, Germany, in 2004. After a postdoctoral fellowship with the University of Basel for 15 months (2003-2004) he joined the Advanced Media Concepts group of the Millipede project (2005-2006) at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory as a Visiting scientist. Armin Knoll joined Science & Technology department in April 2006. His fields of expertise are in scanning probe microscopy, two photon polymerization lithography, block-copolymer self assembly and polymer physics. He is responsible for the probe-based Nanofabrication project.

Learn more about the conference at http://www.smta.org/panpac/index.cfm

Also read: IBM: 3D nanopatterning goes sub-15nm, beats e-beam litho

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(December 16, 2010 – PRNewswire) — The DNA Medicine Institute (DMI) successfully completed reduced-gravity experiments on its rHEALTH sensor for the 2010 Facilitated Access to the Space Environment for Technology (FAST) program, at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in Houston, Texas, at the end of September.

The rHEALTH sensor uses a microfluidics chip designed to extract a multitude of diagnostic information from a single drop of blood. Although designed for use in reduced-gravity environments in space, the lab-on-a-chip technology can be applied to real-time health monitoring at patient’s bedside or in a doctor’s office, and allow for real-time clinical intervention in acute situations. It was one of 17 technology demonstration projects, from 10 different states, for reduced-gravity aircraft flights. The DMI device was subject to zero, lunar, and 1.8 g conditions for periods up to 25 seconds in a Boeing 727 airplane flying repeated parabolic trajectories. A joint team from DMI and NASA’s Glenn Research Center (GRC) successfully performed experiments on the rHEALTH platform, which included sample loading, mixing, and detection. The device operated without fail on all four lunar and zero-gravity flights.

The team tested a range of experiments including sample loading, microfluidic mixing, and detection on the aircraft under reduced gravity conditions. The technology was controlled by a laptop computer and custom software.

"The reduced gravity tests from NASA’s FAST 2010 program provided simulated conditions for implementation of the rHEALTH technology in space. The ability to successfully operate this technology on the parabolic flights also mean that the device is rugged and robust in environments with vibration and variable g-forces, which may be seen in many emergent clinical scenarios here on Earth," said Eugene Y. Chan, M.D., president and chief scientific officer of the DNA Medicine Institute.

NASA’s FAST program is designed to demonstrate whether emerging technologies can perform as expected in the reduced-gravity environment of the moon and Mars, or the Earth orbit’s zero-gravity environment, thus allowing the incorporation of new technologies into the agency’s flight programs and other commercial aerospace applications. It can also reduce the risk of using new technologies during space missions by providing an opportunity to prove how they work in a reduced-gravity environment, providing insight, before expensive testing, into the reasons some technologies may fail.

Other NASA uses of MEMS include near-IR portable spectrometry. To learn more, read: Water on the moon? NASA MEMS-based Phazir spectrometer chat with Steve Senturia

For a complete list of NASA’s 17 selected FAST projects, their associated leading organizations, partners and information about previous FAST flights, visit http://www.nasa.gov/offices/ipp/innovation_incubator/FAST/index.html

DMI utilizes an interdisciplinary, multi-faceted approach to innovation that draws upon diverse and disparate fields including medicine, nanotechnology, genomics, biophysics, biochemistry, molecular biology, and advanced engineering. For more on the rHEALTH test, visit http://www.dnamedinstitute.com/parabolicflight

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(December 15, 2010) — Extending its reach into related adjacent markets, Crossing Automation, Inc., automation solutions and engineering services provider, announced a design win for its ExpressConnect vacuum wafer handling system by a carbon nanotube (CNT) original equipment manufacturer (OEM).

The Shuttle-Lock and vacuum cassette elevator configuration will be integrated into the OEM’s process tool to automate wafer handling. ExpressConnect was selected because it offered a compact, low-cost solution that met the customer’s requirements for its R&D and pilot production environment.

"This order marks our entry into yet another emerging market with significant growth potential and highlights the opportunities available for automation in semiconductor-related markets including CNTs, photovoltaics, LEDs and MEMS," said May Su, vice president of marketing for Crossing Automation. "Our ability to deliver a wide variety of cost-competitive automation building blocks that can be designed to accommodate very specific process requirements provides significant growth opportunities for us as a company."

Crossing’s ExpressConnect vacuum wafer handling solutions suit emerging technologies that are in the process of migrating from smaller wafer sizes used in R&D to production-scale 200 and 300mm wafers, which offer an ideal insertion point for automation technologies. CNTs, MEMS and LEDs are examples of markets that are currently in transition to higher levels of automation in order to meet yield and productivity enhancements.

Crossing Automation supplies efficient, cost-effective vacuum and atmospheric automation solutions, materials tracking and engineering services to hig-volume semiconductor equipment manufacturers, IC, LED and solar manufacturers and other adjacent markets. Learn more at www.crossinginc.com

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