Tag Archives: Small Times Magazine

(December 2, 2010 – BUSINESS WIRE) — In an effort to spark innovation and expand entrepreneurship opportunities, NYU is launching the Technology Venture Competition. The competition, which is open to NYU students, faculty and researchers, has a top prize of $75,000 to the winners.

The Technology Venture Competition was co-created as part of NYU Stern’s Entrepreneurs Challenge by Stern’s Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation and the NYU Innovation Venture Fund. The Entrepreneurs Challenge, launched in 1999, is the premier platform for identifying, nurturing and showcasing entrepreneurial talent at NYU. In addition to the newly created Technology Venture Competition, the Entrepreneurs Challenge includes the Annual New Venture Competition and the Social Venture Competition.

The new competition has attracted sponsorship from Lowenstein Sandler, corporate law firm with extensive experience representing venture funds and tech-based businesses; EisnerAmper LLP, accounting, tax and business advisory firm, with a long history of working with clients in the life science and technology industries; and Maloy Risk Services, property and casualty insurance, brokerage and risk management services provider with deep experience servicing the venture capital, technology and life science companies.

"Each year, NYU students and faculty develop cutting-edge inventions that cut across the information technology, physical science, life science and clean tech sectors," says Frank Rimalovski, managing director of the NYU Innovation Venture Fund. "The aim of the new NYU Technology Venture Competition is to tap into this incredible scientific and technical talent across the University and to enable the creation of new early-stage technology businesses. We are thrilled to have the support of our three sponsors, each of which is already a leader in supporting early stage entrepreneurs in New York City: Lowenstein Sandler, EisnerAmper LLP and Malloy Risk Services. Their generosity is a real validation of what we are trying to accomplish." Click here to read more about recent university research.

NYU Stern’s Entrepreneurs Challenge provides aspiring entrepreneurs with frameworks, mentoring and financial support to stimulate new venture creation. Cash prizes totaling $250,000 will be awarded to the winners of the three arms of this year’s challenge:

  • Winners of the New Venture Competition will receive the Ira Rennert Entrepreneurial Prize of $75,000, supported by Stern alumnus Ira Leon Rennert (MBA ’56).
  • Winners of the Social Venture Competition will receive the Stewart Satter Family Prize of $100,000, supported by Stern alumnus Stewart Satter (MBA ’82).
  • Winners of the new Technology Venture Competition will receive $75,000, sponsored by the NYU Innovation Fund, Lowenstein Sandler, EisnerAmper LLP and Maloy Risk Services.

"At this year’s Entrepreneurs Challenge Kick-Off event, more than 450 NYU students, alumni and researchers gathered, standing-room-only, in Paulson auditorium to learn how to get involved in our competitions," explains Jeffrey Carr, executive director of Stern’s Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation."“With technology at the heart of so many successful businesses today, the Tech Venture Competition was a missing link in our Entrepreneurs Challenge. So we’re delighted to offer this new track, in response to the demand that we see for it in our community, and the support of our new sponsors will be key to realizing the vision of NYU’s technology entrepreneurs."

The NYU Stern Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation is dedicated to conducting and supporting entrepreneurship research and education. The NYU Innovation Venture Fund was created to accelerate the transformation of technology ideas and discoveries from the University’s students, faculty and researchers into viable ventures.

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(December 2, 2010) — Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) debuted a nanoindentation technique available on the Agilent Nano Indenter G200 instrumentation platform. The new technique gives researchers the ability to make accurate, fast substrate-independent measurements on thin film materials by means of nanoindentation. It suits evaluating the elastic modulus of hard samples on soft substrates, or of soft samples on hard substrates.

Substrate influence is a common problem when using nanoindentation to evaluate the elastic modulus of thin film materials. The technique is able to extract the film modulus from the measured substrate-affected modulus, assuming that the film thickness and substrate modulus are known. The technique is applicable to a variety of film-substrate systems.

Agilent refers to the G200 as an "accurate, flexible and user-friendly instrument for nanoscale mechanical testing." It uses electromagnetic actuation to achieve unparalleled dynamic range in force and displacement. The G200 enables measurement of Young’s modulus and hardness in compliance with ISO 14577, as well as measurement of deformation over six orders of magnitude – from nanometers to millimeters.

Agilent Technologies offers high-precision, modular nanomeasurement solutions for research, industry and education. Information about Agilent is available at www.agilent.com.

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(December 1, 2010 – PRNewswire) — EV Group (EVG), wafer bonding and lithography equipment supplier for the MEMS, nanotechnology and semiconductor markets, developed a micro-lens molding process that can enable volume production of very-high-resolution (up to 8MP and higher) wafer-level optics for use in smart phones, pico projectors and myriad other applications.

The new Monolithic Lens Molding (MLM) capability, which was developed in-house by EVG’s process development team, is available as an option on the company’s IQ Aligner UV nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) system or can be upgraded to existing equipment. EVG expects to ship its first IQ Aligner with the MLM option in the first half of 2011.

As the size of the camera in mobile phones can be a limiting factor in mobile handset designs, there is an increasing demand for smaller camera modules that can still address the call for higher resolution and cost effectiveness. This has shifted manufacturing of both the CMOS image sensor and the micro-optics stack to the wafer level. At the same time, the evolution of wafer-level cameras toward higher pixel counts to meet higher performance standards is driving the need for more complex optical systems and, consequently, tighter manufacturing tolerances. 

In wafer-level camera production today, glass substrates are typically used as carrier and spacer wafers for the lenses, which are composed of an optical polymer material. The different material characteristics of these components limit resolution and picture quality, which hinder the scalability and quality of the camera modules. EVG’s MLM process overcomes this limitation by eliminating the need for glass substrates. Instead, the polymer is molded between two stamps and then cured with UV exposure by the EVG’s IQ Aligner system.  By omitting the glass substrates, wafer-level optics manufacturers face fewer constraints on the optic and lens stack design—enabling the production of thinner lens wafers and significantly shorter optical stacks.  In addition, since the IQ Aligner molds the micro-lenses using a room-temperature UV-NIL process versus thermal imprinting, a high degree of precision alignment is achieved between the various elements in the optical lens stack—maximizing device performance.

Visit the company in booth #4A-507 during SEMICON Japan, December 1-3, at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan.

EV Group (EVG) provides wafer-processing solutions for semiconductor, MEMS and nanotechnology applications. More information is available at www.EVGroup.com.

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(December 1, 2010) — Researchers at Delft University of Technology and Oxford University announced a new type of nanopore device that could help in developing fast and cheap genetic analysis. In the journal Nature Nanotechnology (November 28), they report on a novel method that combines man-made and biological materials to result in a tiny hole on a silicon chip, which is able to measure and analyze single DNA molecules.

"The first mapping of the human genome — where the content of the human DNA was read off (‘sequenced’) — was completed in 2003 and it cost an estimated $3 billion. Imagine if that cost could drop to a level of a few 100 euro, where everyone could have their own personal genome sequenced. That would allow doctors to diagnose diseases and treat them before any symptoms arise," Professor Cees Dekker of the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at Delft explains.

One promising device is called a nanopore: a minute hole that can be used to ‘read’ information from a single molecule of DNA as it threads through the hole.

New research by Dekker’s group in collaboration with Professor Hagan Bayley of Oxford University, now demonstrated a more robust type of nanopore device. It combines biological and artificial building blocks. Read about other university-level research here.

Dekker notes that "nanopores are already used for DNA analysis by inserting naturally occurring, pore-forming proteins into a liquid-like membrane made of lipids. DNA molecules can be pulled individually through the pore by applying an electrical voltage across it, and analyzed in much the same way that music is read from an old cassette tape as it is threaded through a player. One aspect that makes this biological technology especially difficult, however, is the reliance on the fragile lipid support layer. This new hybrid approach is much more robust and suitable to integrate nanopores into devices."

Figure. Artistic rendering of the formation of hybrid pores by the directed insertion of the biological protein pore alpha hemolysin (pink) into solid-state nanopores (holes in the green bottom layer). An applied electric field drives a double-stranded DNA molecule (blue, left) into the hole, which subsequently drags the pink hemolysin protein into position. Once assembled, these hybrid nanopores can be used to pull single-strand DNA (blue, center) through, for analysis and sequencing. Image courtesy Cees Dekker lab TU Delft / Tremani

 
The new research, performed chiefly by lead author Dr. Adam Hall, demonstrates a simple method to implant the pore-forming proteins into a robust layer in a silicon chip. Essentially, an individual protein is attached to a larger piece of DNA, which is then pulled through a pre-made opening in a silicon nitride membrane (see figure).

When the DNA molecule threads through the hole, it pulls the pore-forming protein behind it, eventually lodging it in the opening and creating a strong, chip-based system that is tailor-made for arrays and device applications. The researchers have shown that the hybrid device is fully functional and can be used to detect DNA molecules.

The article appears in Nature Nanotechnology, titled "Hybrid pore formation by directed insertion of alpha hemolysin into solid-state nanopores," by Adam R. Hall1, Andrew Scott1, Dvir Rotem2, Kunal K. Mehta2, Hagan Bayley2, and Cees Dekker1, 1: Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, Lorentzweg 1, 2628 CJ Delft, The Netherlands; 2: Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, Chemistry Research Laboratory, Mansfield Road, OX1 3TA, Oxford, UK.

For more information, visit http://www.tudelft.nl/

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(December 1, 2010 – Marketwire) — SiTime Corporation, MEMS-based silicon timing product maker, introduced the SiT1052, a MEMS resonator for real-time clock and time-keeping applications. The all-silicon SiT1052 can be integrated inside a plastic package, eliminating all external time-keeping components from an electronic system. The device enables total frequency stability of ±5 PPM in a system. Typical users of the SiT1052 include IC manufacturers of real time clocks, microprocessors, microcontrollers, low power radios, sensor nodes, watches, SmartCards and ASSPs for portable, handheld and consumer applications.

The SiT1052 MEMS resonator is one-tenth the size of the smallest 32.768 kHz crystal device. By using SiTime’s patented MEMS First process, the MEMS resonator is vacuum sealed in silicon, which eliminates the need for ceramic packages and hermetic sealing. Unlike quartz crystals, SiTime’s MEMS resonator die can be combined with a SOC, ASIC or ASSP die using either wire-bonding or flip-chip, and encapsulated in a cost-effective, standard semiconductor plastic package. Customers benefit from this integration with smaller board space, fewer components and faster time to market. Read more about packaging here.

The SiT1052 also enables better frequency stability than quartz, as good as ±5 PPM over temperature, voltage, and process. 32 kHz quartz resonators are known to exhibit significant frequency shifts due to solder down and reflow. Silicon MEMS resonators do not exhibit these characteristics. As a result, customers experience higher performance and reliability as well as simplicity in design and purchasing.

"SiTime addresses resonators, oscillators and clock generators. We have successfully penetrated the $1.5B oscillator market with our revolutionary MEMS-based products that offer unmatched features, exceptional performance, faster availability and lower cost," said Rajesh Vashist, CEO of SiTime. "We are now expanding into the $2 billion resonator market. SiTime has formed partnerships with key, large semiconductor companies who are already integrating the SiT1052 into their high volume chips."

Product lead times are significantly shorter than quartz devices. SiTime’s MEMS resonators can withstand shocks up to 50,000 G and vibration up to 70 G, which is 10 times better than quartz crystals. MEMS resonators also benefit from Moore’s Law and offer a cost trajectory that is significantly better than legacy quartz devices.

The SiT1052 MEMS resonator is available as known good die (KGD) and is currently in production. SiTime provides a complete solution, including resonator die and analog circuit IP.

SiTime Corporation, an analog semiconductor company, offers MEMS-based silicon timing solutions that replace legacy quartz products.For more information, please visit www.sitime.com/products/resonator/sit1052

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(November 30, 2010 – Marketwire) — The FlexTech Alliance, focused on developing the electronic display and the flexible, printed electronics industry supply chain, has awarded a contract to Cambridge NanoTech to develop a high-speed atomic layer deposition (ALD) system. When completed, the system will enable the manufacture of large-area and flexible substrates for use in organic electronics, solar cells, biomedical devices, and displays.

The high-speed ALD system is targeted to operate at the high volumes necessary for commercial roll-to-roll practices. ALD enables perfect, conformal, ultra-thin films that are scalable to large-area substrates. ALD simultaneously offers excellent thickness uniformity, film density, step coverage, interface quality, and low temperature processing, making ALD beneficial for both roll-to-roll flexible substrates and rigid substrates.

"We are honored to be selected by the FlexTech Alliance to industrialize ALD and bring it to the forefront of thin film technology," said Ray Ritter, COO of Cambridge NanoTech. "This exciting, new technology will advance the way flexible electronics, displays and other next-generation consumer devices are fabricated."

"The FlexTech Alliance supports the mission to help build a commercially viable industry around flexible and printed electronics," said Michael Ciesinski, CEO of FlexTech Alliance. "The high-speed ALD system that Cambridge NanoTech will develop with this award stands to play a key role in commercializing the flexible electronics market."

To accelerate the ALD process, the engineering team at Cambridge NanoTech is focusing on cycle time reduction by means of a high speed precursor delivery and extraction mechanism. The beta system will be installed at the Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University in 2012. In addition to designing and building the high-speed ALD system, Cambridge NanoTech is developing film processes that are applicable to electronics and display manufacturers.

Visit Cambridge NanoTech at Booth #622 at the Material Research Society meeting at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA.

The FlexTech Alliance fosters the growth, profitability and success of the electronic display and the flexible, printed electronics supply chain. Learn more at www.flextech.org.

Cambridge NanoTech delivers Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) systems capable of depositing ultra-thin films that are used in a wide variety of research and industrial applications. To learn more about Cambridge NanoTech, visit www.cambridgenanotech.com.

(November 30, 2010) — Driven by the rapid recovery in automotive production and inventory rebuilding among sensor component suppliers, the market for automotive microelectromechanical system (MEMS) sensors will expand to record size in 2010, according to market research firm iSuppli, now part of IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS).

Marking a new high point for the industry, shipments of automotive MEMS sensors will reach 662.3 million units in 2010, up a robust 32.1% from 501.2 million units in 2009. The projected year-end levels — including replenishment of inventory pipelines that were depleted during the recession — will exceed even the pre-crisis high point in 2007 of 640 million sensors, iSuppli data research shows. iSuppli had initially expected automotive MEMS sensors to hit only 591 million units in 2010.

"The recovery in automotive MEMS shipments represents a happy turnaround from the depressed levels of 2009 when shipments cratered and reached a nadir, and the years ahead will provide additional room for expansion," said Richard Dixon, Ph.D., senior analyst for MEMS and sensors at iSuppli.

Nonetheless, growth will slow in 2011. Shipments will climb just 7.3% as the market normalizes following the exuberance in 2010. Production then will pick up again in 2012, and growth rates end up north of 13% by 2014.

New MEMS applications, markets in auto

One significant engine of automotive MEMS growth is the use of sensors in passenger cars supporting mandated safety technologies such as electronic stability control (ESC) and tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS).

The United States and Europe have led the adoption of legislation on such safety systems, and other countries like Australia and Canada have quickly followed suit. Similar mandates are now being adopted in South Korea and are expected in Japan, accelerating overall adoption rates worldwide. The extra opportunity from both ESC and TPMS for automotive MEMS suppliers to Japan and Korea will correspond to additional revenue of some $120 million in those regions alone for the next five years, iSuppli has determined.

China will also account for a large portion of the automotive MEMS action. Compared to U.S. or European vehicles, the electronics content of low- and mid-range vehicles in China is about 50% or less, but sensor penetration will steadily increase — first in powertrain applications to reduce carbon emissions and afterward as safety sensors for additional airbags and ESC systems.

Among the new applications providing suppliers greater production opportunities for automotive MEMS sensors, the most prominent include usage of gas sensors to control air quality in the cabin; infrared thermopiles to monitor temperature; microbolometers to aid night-vision systems and MEMS oscillators to boost rear-view cameras.

Sensor fusion — using existing sensor signals with additional algorithms to satisfy new applications — will be a contentious issue, however, Dixon said. While the sales of accelerometers used to measure inclination as part of an electronic parking brake (EPB) will accelerate in Europe in the next five years, EPB prospects are also dampened by ESC systems, which already contain the 2-axis accelerometers capable of delivering the required inclination signal for parking brakes.

Other applications that will propagate the use of sensors include passenger protection systems that detect impacts by means of either accelerometers or pressure sensors located in the front bumper; as well as stop-start systems that need pressure, and other non-MEMS based measurements to supply critical data when a vehicle’s engine is turned off at a junction, Dixon said.

Consumer-oriented MEMS suppliers

iSuppli also notes that some consumer-oriented MEMS sensor suppliers are making inroads into the automotive market, widening the pool of players participating in the space.

In particular STMicroelectronics, MEMS supplier for consumer and mobile applications, so far has targeted non-safety critical applications in automotive such as car alarms and navigation. STMicro has now entered the airbag market with a high-g accelerometer. STM is expected to leverage its significant manufacturing economies of scale, which likely will lead to additional price pressures and new cost structures in the industry.

Read More in "Auto Production Recovery and Rebuilding of Inventory to Drive Record MEMS Revenue in 2010" at http://www.isuppli.com/MEMS-and-Sensors/Pages/Auto-Production-Recovery-and-Rebuilding-of-Inventory-to-Drive-Record-MEMS-Revenue-in-2010.aspx?PRX

iSuppli’s market research reports help deliver 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. Visit http://www.isuppli.com/Pages/Home.aspx for more information.

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(November 29, 2010) — Electrical engineers generate short, powerful light pulses on a chip — an important step toward the optical interconnects that will likely replace the copper wires that carry information between chips within today’s computers. University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego) engineers developed the first ultra compact, low power pulse compressor on a silicon chip to be described in the scientific literature. Details appeared online in the journal Nature Communications on November 16.

 
Scanning electron micrograph of dispersive grating before deposition of SiO2 overcladding. (Decorative red filter added to image.)

This miniaturized short pulse generator eliminates a roadblock on the way to optical interconnects for use in PCs, data centers, imaging applications and beyond. These optical interconnects, which will aggregate slower data channels with pulse compression, will have far higher data rates and generate less heat than the copper wires they will replace. Such aggregation devices will be critical for future optical connections within and between high speed digital electronic processors in future digital information systems.

"Our pulse compressor is implemented on a chip, so we can easily integrate it with computer processors," said Dawn Tan, the Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Tan led development of the pulse compressor.

"Next-generation computer networks and computer architectures will likely replace copper interconnects with their optical counterparts, and these have to be complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) compatible. This is why we created our pulse compressor on silicon," said Tan, an electrical engineering graduate student researcher at UC San Diego, and part of the National Science Foundation funded Center for Integrated Access Networks.

The pulse compressor will also provide a cost effective method to derive short pulses for a variety of imaging technologies such as time resolved spectroscopy – which can be used to study lasers and electron behavior, and optical coherence tomography – which can capture biological tissues in three dimensions.

In addition to increasing data transfer rates, switching from copper wires to optical interconnects will reduce power consumption caused by heat dissipation, switching and transmission of electrical signals.

"At UC San Diego, we recognized the enabling power of nanophotonics for integration of information systems close to 20 years ago when we first started to use nano-scale lithographic tools to create new optical functionalities of materials and devices — and most importantly, to enable their integration with electronics on a chip. This Nature Communications paper demonstrates such integration of a few optical signal processing device functionalities on a CMOS compatible silicon-on-insulator material platform," said Yeshaiahu Fainman, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Fainman acknowledged DARPA support in developing silicon photonics technologies which helped to enable this work, through programs such as Silicon-based Photonic Analog Signal Processing Engines with Reconfigurability (Si-PhASER) and Ultraperformance Nanophotonic Intrachip Communications (UNIC).

Pulse compression for on-chip optical interconnects

The compressed pulses are seven times shorter than the original — the largest compression demonstrated to date on a chip.

Until now, pulse compression featuring such high compression factors was only possible using bulk optics or fiber-based systems, both of which are bulky and not practical for optical interconnects for computers and other electronics.

The combination of high compression and miniaturization are possible due to a nanoscale, light-guiding tool called an “integrated dispersive element” developed and designed primarily by electrical engineering Ph.D. candidate Dawn Tan. The new dispersive element offers a much needed component to the on-chip nanophotonics tool kit.

Dawn Tan, the Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering who led development of the pulse compressor.

The pulse compressor works in two steps. In step one, the spectrum of incoming laser light is broadened. For example, if green laser light were the input, the output would be red, green and blue laser light. In step two, the new integrated dispersive element developed by the electrical engineers manipulates the light so each spectrum in the pulse is travelling at the same speed. This speed synchronization is where pulse compression occurs.

Imagine the laser light as a series of cars. Looking down from above, the cars are initially in a long caravan. This is analogous to a long pulse of laser light.

After stage one of pulse compression, the cars are no longer in a single line and they are moving at different speeds. Next, the cars move through the new dispersive grating where some cars are sped up and others are slowed down until each car is moving at the same speed. Viewed from above, the cars are all lined up and pass the finish line at the same moment.

This example illustrates how the on-chip pulse compressor transforms a long pulse of light into a spectrally broader and temporally shorter pulse of light. This temporally compressed pulse will enable multiplexing of data to achieve much higher data speeds.

“In communications, there is this technique called optical time division multiplexing or OTDM, where different signals are interleaved in time to produce a single data stream with higher data rates, on the order of terabytes per second. We’ve created a compression component that is essential for OTDM,” said Tan.

The UC San Diego electrical engineers say they are the first to report a pulse compressor on a CMOS-compatible integrated platform that is strong enough for OTDM.

“In the future, this work will enable integrating multiple ‘slow’ bandwidth channels with pulse compression into a single ultra-high-bandwidth OTDM channel on a chip. Such aggregation devices will be critical for future inter- and intra-high speed digital electronic processors interconnections for numerous applications such as data centers, field-programmable gate arrays, high performance computing and more,” said Fainman, holder of the Cymer Inc. Endowed Chair in Advanced Optical Technologies at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and Deputy Director of the NSF-funded Center for Integrated Access Networks.

Learn more at http://www.ucsd.edu/

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Nanoparticles fry cancer cells


November 25, 2010

(November 25, 2010 – PRNewswire) — Magnetic fluid hyperthermia (MFH) is a promising new cancer treatment that heats cells inside tumors to kill them. The procedure has been used successfully in prostate, liver, and breast tumors. Magnetic nanoparticles are injected into the body intravenously and diffuse selectively into cancerous tissues. Add a high-frequency magnetic field, and the particles heat up, raising the temperature of the tumor cells.

"The entire tumor volume is heated above a threshold treatment temperature — typically 42°C (107.6°F) — for generally 30 minutes," explains engineering graduate student Monrudee Liangruksa of Virginia Tech.

Other nanotech cancer-fighting research
 
Plasmonic nanobubbles detect and ablate cancer cells
Lab-on-chip project aims to diagnose cancer faster
Nanopharmaceutical cancer therapy trial data
Magnetic nanodiscs destroy cancer cells
DNA-coated CNTs kill cancer, spare tissue

The outcome? As described at the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics (DFD) meeting in Long Beach, CA, when the nanoparticles are heated, cancer cells die with no adverse effects to the surrounding healthy tissue.

To further perfect the technique, Liangruksa and her colleagues explored the effects of different types of magnetic nanoparticles. The most promising varieties, they found, were iron–platinum, magnetite, and maghemite, all of which generate therapeutically useful heating. "However, we wish to use MFH in humans," she says, and "the most biocompatible agents are magnetite and maghemite. Iron–platinum is toxic and vulnerable to oxidation."

The 63rd Annual DFD Meeting is hosted this year by the University of Southern California, California State University Long Beach, California Institute of Technology, and the University of California, Los Angeles. http://www.dfd2010.caltech.edu/

The Division of Fluid Dynamics of the American Physical Society (APS) exists for the advancement and diffusion of knowledge of the physics of fluids with special emphasis on the dynamical theories of the liquid, plastic and gaseous states of matter under all conditions of temperature and pressure. See: http://www.aps.org/units/dfd/

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Energy storage research – specifically high performance cathodes made of low-cost nanocarbons — will be part of the focus on a new collaborative effort between The Dow Chemical Company and University of Queenland’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering Nanotechnology (AIBN). Dow will contribute approximately $AU1.74million ($UDS1.7million) in the three-year alliance. In addition to improved energy storage systems, AIBN will conduct research on sustainable sources for chemicals and new-generation circuitry.

The research into high performance cathode materials based on low-cost nanocarbons will involve the research group led by Professor Max Lu and Dr. Denisa Jurcakova. The objective of the project is to develop improved cathode materials with high energy and power densities for applications in hybrid vehicles and renewable energy storage systems.

Caption: PhD student Sean Muir, AIBN’s Dr Denisa Jurcakova, Dow chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris and Professor Max Lu.

Research in the project will involve novel material design, synthesis, electrochemistry and fundamental chemistry. The improved nanoparticles developed will find use in batteries with potential use not only in portable devices, but for hybrid vehicles and energy storage for renewable resources such as sun and wind.

Research into new-generation circuitry for electronics will be completed by Professor Andrew Whittaker’s and Dr. Idriss Blakey’s research group. Researchers will use organic synthesis, physical chemistry and electrical engineering to craft functional plastics and polymers for the manufacture of integrated circuits. The new generation of circuits will increase performance, decrease size and cost and have potential uses in computers, cameras, smart phones, hand-held gadgets and even fridges.

Escalating oil costs and concerns about carbon dioxide emissions make it imperative to develop new manufacturing processes based on renewable substrates rather than diminishing fossil fuels. Research carried out in the third project will be led by Professor Lars Nielsen and Dr. Jens Kromer, and will use scientific advances in the biosciences to genetically reprogram bacteria to produce the chemical building blocks of the future.