OTHER ELECTRONICS

UPDATE

October 2006

McIlvaine Company

Vistec Lithography Sees a Brighter Future in Move from England

Vistec Lithography Ltd., lured by the research and development at Albany NanoTech and $30 million in state funding, is moving lock, stock and barrel from Cambridge, England, to Watervliet, NY.

It's the first time a high-tech equipment supplier has moved its entire operations to the Capital Region, said Assemblyman Ronald Canestrari, D-Cohoes.

The company, formerly Leica Microsystems Lithography, is developing electron-beam lithography, a technology that enables the production of ever-smaller components and circuity on microprocessors.

Vistec will establish a research presence at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the University at Albany and, in partnership with the Arsenal Business & Technology Partnership, will move its headquarters, sales and marketing and manufacturing operations to the Watervliet Arsenal.

Canestrari recently announced the creation of the Center for Lithography Development at UAlbany.

Vistec will invest $125 million over the next two years in its facilities at the arsenal. The relocation is projected to create as many as 130 jobs over the next two years — 80 at Vistec and 50 at Capital Region companies that will supply Vistec.

Three Research Facilities at Oregon Universities

The largest and most technologically advanced electron microscopy and nanofabrication lab in the northwest will opens its doors at Portland State on Oct. 13.  PSU’s new lab will have with the widest selection of nanotechnology instruments available in any northwest university campus.

The Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnology Institute (ONAMI) is opening three signature research facilities throughout the northwest, one of which was opened this past summer at the University of Oregon, and one of which will be opening for operation later this year at Oregon State University.

 The center will be made up mostly of a complex of laboratories, but will also contain a small laboratory teaching facility available to both graduate and undergraduate students, as well as researchers from Oregon universities. The bulk of all the teaching, however, will be held in Science Building 1.

Nanoscale fabrication requires very precise measurements to ensure proper production and testing, and the new center will rank among the technologically elite. The center will also be very diverse, focusing on all aspects of nanotechnology — including biology, chemistry, and appropriate technology.

Nanotechnology is the branch of technology that deals with the dimensions and tolerances of individual atoms and molecules. “As an example, a printer itself contains a base of microtechnology,” said Donald McClave, assistant to the Portland State president for corporate affairs and economic development. “But the nanosized technology is in the ink.”

ONAMI will provide a minimal amount of funding for the facility because the corporation was created by the legislature to link university research and to build a knowledge base for the economy. The bulk of the funding will come from a user’s fee charged to students and researchers. The facility was designed to be self-supporting. The facility will provide a space for researchers and students from neighboring universities to work together. “The universities have quite complimentary skills,” McClave said. “Even though they are very different, they work like perfect pieces in a puzzle.”

LG Consolidates Operations in Russia
Global digital leader LG Electronics has established a large complex of production facilities in Ruza, near Moscow, as part of its efforts to consolidate its production capabilities in Europe and the CIS countries.

LG Electronics and its suppliers invested a total of US$150 million in the 49.5-hectare complex. The facility has an annual production capability of 500,000 digital TVs, 700,000 washing machines, 200,000 refrigerators, and 260,000 home theatre systems. LG plans to increase the capacity in each category to 1 million units annually by 2008.

LG is strategically increasing its production capacity in Russia as the country is expected to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) later this year. The company already commands the top market share in Russia for TVs, audio equipment, vacuum cleaners, microwave ovens, video components, DVDs and optical storage.

 The company chose Russia as the location for this plant to better serve customers in the region. By setting up the facility, LG can pass-on savings on distribution costs and tariffs directly to its customers, while taking advantage of the region’s highly-skilled workforce.

The new facility will complement LG’s production facilities in Europe, where it already has a digital TV plant in Mlawa, Poland, and a LCD TV and side-by-side refrigerator plant in Wroclaw, Poland. These plants together will make up a production triangle that allows the company to lead the European and Russia/CIS markets.

India to Create Forward-Looking City
Bhatia, who established the web-based e-mail corporation Hotmail, hopes to transform farmland into Nano City, a modern, sustainable urban center with first-world infrastructure. Once built, the city would provide 500,000 people with water, power, transport systems and Internet connectivity. "My goal is to really make this the center of creation of intellectual property in India," Bhatia said.

He shared his vision for Nano City on Sept. 25 at the first talk in the Global Projects Projects (CRGP). When a student asked why he picked the name Nano City, Bhatia noted that, just as silicon was the "substrate of the '60s," the future now lies in nanotechnology. "Nanotechnology sits at the confluence of a number of areas of research, not just computing," he said. "It's material science, biotechnology, pharmaceutical research and nanotechnology itself."

If everything goes as expected, Nano City will be located about nine miles from Chandigarh, a city that he said has a 97 percent literacy rate but inadequate infrastructure. "There is not a single city in India today that you can actually open the faucet and actually drink the water and feel safe about it," Bhatia said. "If we do this, it will be the first."

Bhatia predicted that the construction of the city will provide better opportunities for Chandigarh's well-educated youth, who in turn will make discoveries to benefit the entire country. By attracting expertise from world-class universities, such as Stanford, as well as cutting-edge technology companies, Bhatia said that Nano City someday could become the source of the next generation of chip design, drug discovery and Internet software creation.

Bhatia is hoping to finance Nano City through a public and private partnership. As an example, he pointed to a proposed $2 billion power plant for the city, which he said could be financed by investors who in exchange would get the rights to generate and distribute power for a number of decades. "A private company may come and put in the money and then monetize the investment over the next 10, 15, 20 years," Bhatia explained. "This is the mechanism by which many Asian countries have developed their infrastructure over the last 20 to 30 years, an example being Thailand."

The state of Haryana is helping speed the process by granting special privileges to encourage investment, he added

Nanotechnology and MEMs in Scotland

We are entering the age of the micro machines. Small enough to scuttle across the surface of a microchip – or penetrate a human red blood cell – these tiny devices will soon be watching over virtually everything you do. From keeping a watching eye on your car brakes to powering the curtains in your automated home, nanotechnology is just around the corner, and coming soon to a device near you.

About 50 million MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) are predicted to be installed in mobile phones by the end of 2008, boosting the total market value to $9.5 billion.

“This is an exciting time to be in nanotechnology. The commercialization of MEMS devices is well underway and in Scotland we have both the world-class expertise and the cutting-edge facilities required to capitalize on that,” says Mark Begbie, nanotech group manager at the Institute for System Level Integration (iSLI).

Helped by £1.1 million in funding from Scottish Enterprise, Livingston-based iSLI’s iDesign centre offers a range of nanotech design services. Equipped to take proposed devices from concept to reality, the facility is currently ramping up its activity and engaging with the private sector market. Once designed and tested with the aid of scientists at the universities of Strathclyde and Heriot-Watt, prototype devices will then be manufactured by Semefab, the Fife-based semiconductor company.

Semefab is now close to completing a £15 million, DTI-backed manufacturing facility capable of producing tiny sensors, switches and processors that are only a quarter of the diameter of a human hair. This positions it well to become the UK’s primary centre for the design and development of micro machines and nano-systems, helping to drive major advances in medicine, drug discovery and communications.

At iSLI, meanwhile, they’ve already co-developed a prototype medical diagnostics “smart-pill”. Small enough to swallow, the device monitors various environmental parameters as it passes through the alimentary canal, transmitting this data to a logging instrument worn by the patient and creating a complete record of their gut health.

MEMS devices are already to be found in every ink jet cartridge currently in circulation and are also used in many high-end projection televisions, accounting for analyst estimates valuing today’s global market at $1.9 billion for integrated devices and $3 billion for separate components.  The next generation of mobile phones is also embracing the microscopic revolution, with nanotechnology now being used to design more efficient GPS navigation tools.

The global nanotechnology market is expected to exceed $100 billion over the next 10 years. It is estimated that over the next five years, about 40 companies will be able to access Semefab’s facilities, producing 50 new prototype products and contributing around £53m to the Scottish economy.

The U.S. Congress Included Funding for the Following Oregon Projects

The Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI) will receive $2.076 million for the Center for Nanotechnology for Thermal Management and Portable Power Generation, the new Oregon nanotechnology center. The center will develop nanotechnologies which significantly enhance the performance of microelectronics for military applications.

• ONAMI will also receive $2.5 million for the Nanoelectronics and Nanometrology Initiative.
   
• ONAMI will also receive $2.3 million for the safer nanomaterials and nanomanufacturing program.

• ONAMI will also receive $1 million for the miniature tactical energy systems development program.

System, Texas Instruments and NERC Launch World-Class Nanoelectronics Research Initiative — Over $30 Million Allocated for New R&D

Addressing the long-term research needs of the semiconductor industry, Texas Instruments, the State of Texas, the Nanoelectronics Research Corporation (NERC) and The University of Texas System announced a $30 million investment in university nanoelectronics programs. Starting with the establishment of the Southwest Academy of Nanoelectronics (SWAN), headquartered at The University of Texas at Austin, the effort will attract top academic researchers to develop and commercialize new nanoelectronics materials and devices that hold the promise of taking the electronics industry beyond today's chip technologies. Texas Instruments is the lead corporate investor in the effort, with a $5 million contribution.

Billions of times every day — at the turn of a key, flip of a switch, or push of a button — semiconductor chips at the heart of complex electronics play a vital role in the global economy. The results from this initiative will enable the semiconductor industry to extend Moore's Law — the 40-year- old prediction that the industry can double the number of transistors it places on a computer chip every couple of years — far beyond the year 2020, when the potential limit of the current industry technology is expected to be reached.

SWAN is the third of three new university-based nanoelectronics research centers managed by NERC under the auspices of the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC). Six member companies of the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), including AMD, Freescale Semiconductor, IBM, Intel, Micron Technology and Texas Instruments established NERC as a subsidiary of the SRC in 2005 to specifically find additional options beyond the CMOS technology that underpins today's electronics. NERC is working closely with the National Science Foundation to align nanoelectronics research taking place at various Nanotechnology Centers of Excellence around the country.

SWAN joins the Western Institute of Nanoelectronics (WIN) in California and the Institute for Nanoelectronics Discovery and Exploration (INDEX) in New York as the third regional center established by NERC. Strong links between these centers and the participating universities will be instrumental in reaching the 15-year goal of demonstrating novel computing devices that will operate beyond the forecasted limits of today's technologies.

Conventional electronics use electrical fields to control the flow of electrons using only their charge, but other observed phenomena at the atomic level may be able to process vastly more information while using less power. The SWAN research will focus on development of computing devices that leverage quantum properties such as spin and phase to represent the 1's and 0's of modern digital electronics. By creating a multi-university center, SWAN will optimize the outcome by promoting collaboration and coordinating resources.

The UT System Board of Regents in July approved $10 million for funding facilities, labs and capital equipment for eight senior faculty members.

Funds from TI, the State of Texas, the UT System and NERC will support the initial three-year program. Additional opportunities for expanded exploration are anticipated among the participants beyond the basic research phase. SWAN research activities will be supported by a number of UT System institutions including the Arlington, Austin and Dallas campuses, as well as Texas A&M University, Rice University, Arizona State University, the University of Maryland and the University of Notre Dame.