dec 07 update

Fabrinet, a provider of foundry services to optical component, module, and subsystem OEMs has completed construction of a 300,000+ square foot addition to its Pinehurst optical manufacturing complex, near Bangkok, Thailand, and commenced operations at the new factory. Completed on time and on-budget, the factory brings Fabrinet's global manufacturing capacity to over one million square feet.

The new facility will be used to serve increasing demand for the company's complex engineering and manufacturing services for optical communications and other opto-mechanical and opto-electronic markets, including positioning sensors, automotive and medical devices.

The new factory's modular infrastructure will accommodate numerous assembly lines, each of which may be customized environmentally to support Class 100,000 to Class 100 Clean Rooms as well as a variety of humidification and electro-static discharge requirements for high precision opto-electronic manufacturing. Additionally, the factory will accommodate Fabrinet's customer-specific "factory within a factory" operations, ensuring IP security and adherence to each customer's desired manufacturing processes.

Reliance Steel Opens New Shanghai Plant

Reliance Steel & Aluminum Company,Valex Corp subsidiary, opened a new Shanghai facility to produce equipment for the semiconductor, LCD and solar industries.

The new 24,000 square-foot plant will produce high purity tubes, fittings and valves for those industries and will help it increase its share in the growing Asian market.

Peking University, Spreadtrum Open Joint Lab

Peking University (PKU) and Spreadtrum Communications have opened a new joint laboratory at the university's Shanghai Research Institute of MicroElectronics (SHRIME) located at the Zhangjiang Technology Park, Pudong, Shanghai.

The establishment of PKU-Spreadtrum Joint Laboratory should strengthen the cooperation between Spreadtrum and PKU in the commercialization of PKU's education and research. Setting up the joint laboratory would push the development of IC design technology and cultivate more senior talents for China's IC industry.

China, Finland Ally on Nanotech Research

The Finnish National Nanotechnology Initiative (FinNano) and the China International Nanotech Innovation Cluster (CINIC) have strengthened their nanotechnology collaboration through the signing of an agreement that aims to foster nanotech research and put Sino-Finnish nanotech products onto the market by 2010.

This cooperation agreement between FinNano and CINIC represents one element of the Nanotechnology Strategic Mutual Cooperation Initiative (NAMI) signed in January in Beijing, China. Thirty project proposals and expressions of interest have been collected, and the first cooperation projects under the NAMI program have been launched in October.

Setting objectives for cooperation, Finland and China said they aim at increasing the competitiveness of industrial sectors in the two countries. The industries include information and communication technologies, pulp and paper, chemicals, metals and other materials, diagnostics and healthcare. The production of energy using new technologies such as solar cell and fuel cells is under consideration.

An additional boost in collaboration is expected under the new Finnish $295 million technology program on functional materials, which Finnish representatives introduced to officials from the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology at the end of November. Both the nanotech and the functional materials program are funded and managed by the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, and coordinated by Spinverse Inc., a private Finnish technology consultancy.

Singapore Opens Nano-Scale Measurement Facility

Singapore has opened Southeast Asia's first nano-scale measurement facility which can measure tiny units of up to one nanometre. A nanometre is one-billionth of a metre or 1/80000 of the diameter of a strand of human hair.

This will come as a boost to local companies which require highly precise measurements. It is also a key step towards making Singapore a centre for nanotech-related standards and metrology.

The global nanotechnology industry is projected to be worth about US$1 trillion by 2010.

In Singapore, it has been expanding at about 8 to 21 percent, depending on application and products, with the number of firms quadrupling over the past three years.

Having a facility in Singapore means that local firms will no longer have to send their products overseas for calibration. This will, in turn, cut down on time and costs, and boost competitiveness.

The facility, built at a cost of S$10 million, is expected to benefit industries such as semiconductor, microelectronics and precision engineering.

The Singapore government spends about S$20 million annually on nanotechnology-related R&D and manpower development.

DeBartolo Constructs State-of-the-Art Engineering Building

A new fence encloses the construction site for Stinson-Remick Hall, the planned state-of-the-art engineering building on campus.

Notre Dame is building Stinson-Remick Hall on the site formerly occupied by the University Club.

The new engineering building, set to open in 2010, will house a nano-technology research center, a new energy center, an undergraduate interdisciplinary learning center and a semiconductor processing and device fabrication clean room.

Stinson-Remick Hall will also feature a $500,000 solar panel array and energy system donated by General Electric which undergraduates will be allowed to study to track the energy being generated.

Henkel Expands Lab Facilities in Europe

The electronics group of Henkel has completed the expansion of its state-of-the-art R&D and Applications laboratory in the company's Hemel Hempstead facility in the United Kingdom.

Though officially opened in the first quarter of 2006, the recent investment in the 225 square meter facility has allowed for additional development and testing capabilities and a complete remodel, rendering the laboratory one of the most modern and technically advanced materials development centers in the world. New capabilities include advanced conformal coating development tools including various automated selective dispensing applicators, as well as expanded materials compatibility testing capabilities. When combined, these resources facilitate industry standard and customer-specific qualifications, and allow for the assessment of potential conformal coating and flux interactions.

Technical research and development teams at the Hemel Hempstead facility are paired with applications teams to provide synergistic materials formulation and products with outstanding in-field performance. This shared expertise enables the coordination of customer projects, streamlines product introductions, and allows for the building and testing of parts for customers and speeds time-to-market for new product introductions.

Extensive efforts have been put forth to ensure that the new lab is as future-proof as possible, with advanced production and analytical equipment that allows the development teams to adapt to ever changing market requirements. The lab is equipped with a complete production line for printed circuit board (PCB) assembly and the latest testing equipment, giving Henkel technical specialists the unique ability to study material behavior in-process, thus facilitating the development of proven, tested and guaranteed compatible materials. Lab equipment in the European technical headquarters includes advanced screen printers, reflow ovens, solder paste deposition measurement systems, superior X-ray equipment, wave soldering systems as well as advanced analytical, microscopy and metallurgical tools.

Harvard’s Nanotechnology Research Grows in $155 Million Building

Construction was completed earlier this month on the colossal Oxford Street building that houses the science of the very small. But scientific preeminence does not come cheaply, and with its $155 million price tag, LISE is no exception. In its planning stages, the project drew criticism for contributing to a projected budget deficit in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), and the University has still not secured a primary donor to help pay for the building.

Situated at the center of Harvard’s scientific campus in Cambridge, the LISE building lies mostly underground, with a wall of glass that allows natural light to permeate the lower floors. In order to maintain the original walkways in the area, the upper portion of the building rests atop three enormous columns. LISE also preserves the lawn of the Music Building, under which now lies the cleanroom — an advanced, temperature-controlled dust-free environment that is one of the building’s most important scientific resources.

Since dust particles are often several time larger than the devices that nanoscientists create, and temperature difference of a fraction of a degree can decrease the precision of an imaging device, LISE’s heavily-filtered 10,000-square foot cleanroom has less than 1,000 particles of dust per cubic foot. A typical urban environment has millions of particles per cubic foot.

Because nanoscale imaging is also very sensitive to vibration, the building incorporates special architecture that isolates the imaging labs from local disturbances, such as the T rumbling underground.

The building seeks to integrate the work of numerous labs by providing open spaces that facilitate the exchange of ideas. The aroma of Peet’s Coffee from the well-stocked café permeates the building, and there are sunlit collaboration areas on the upper floors.

The total construction cost for LISE looms around $155 million, slightly more than the original projected cost of $152 million, according to FAS Director of Capital Projects Stephen L. Needham.

LISE is the second building completed as part of a broader North Yard science complex, which also includes the Biological Research Infrastructure and the Northwest Science Building.

According to Eric Martin, the technical direct of Harvard's Center for Nanoscale Systems, most elite research schools—including MIT, Stanford, and Cornell—have such a cleanroom, and in some ways, Harvard is a latecomer to the nanotechnology game, although the LISE building should make up for that shortcoming.

As the home of Harvard’s Center for Nanoscale Systems, LISE also plays host to scientists from other schools through a grant from the National Science Foundation. About 20 non-Harvard researchers use the LISE facilities at any given time.

Foxconn to Build New Facilities in China, Vietnam

Handset contract manufacturer Foxconn International Holdings Ltd will invest at least $500 million in the next years on a new factory in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, China to expand production.

Foxconn plans to double production capacity in China by the end of next year to meet rising orders from customers including Nokia Oyj and Sony Ericsson Communications Ltd. Company spokesman Vincent Tong disclosed that Foxconn's Shenzhen's operations may reduce its size as the Huizhou site may eventually become larger.

Foxconn has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the people's committee of the northern port of Haiphong, Vietnam to set up an industrial, urban and entertainment complex worth $1 billion. The company has opened a plant for camera modules, main boards and connectors in northern Bac Ninh Province and also plans to establish industrial-urban complexes in neighboring Bac Giang Province, north of the capital Hanoi.

Airworthy Aerospace Hosted an Open House for Cleanroom Addition

Airworthy is a growth success. Jim Rouleau started with two employees and now has 65 including three based in Detroit and one in Seattle. Since the company hosted its last open house, less then a year ago a lot has changed.

Survival Engineering was sold to a fortune 100 company from the east coast. They moved the operation from Hudson to Long Island where it joins 38 different divisions.

That freed up a significant amount of space for Airworthy to continue its expansion which included the construction of a cleanroom, where they will be offering avionics service to complement their host of other services geared towards the commercial airline industry.

Rouleau has also implemented the Lean Six Sigma system, which in the business world means the company looks to improve efficiency, reduce cost and improve customer relations.

The company now has contract to service all of the galley equipment for Northwest Airlines and is working on a partnership to support and service the new Boeing 787.

NANOTECHNOLOGY

Government of Canada Invests $118 Million in Public-Private S&T Partnerships

The Government of Canada reconfirmed its support for R&D-based partnerships between all levels of government, the private sector and university researchers by investing $118 million over three years in six National Research Council (NRC) technology cluster initiatives. As part of this announcement, the NRC National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT) will receive $36 million over the next three years.

The Government of Canada's multi-million-dollar investment supports the following priority areas: hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in Vancouver, nanotechnology in Edmonton, plants for health and wellness in Saskatoon, biomedical technologies in Winnipeg, photonics in Ottawa, and aluminum transformation in the Saguenay – Lac-Saint-Jean region.

Technology clusters are broadly based community partnerships between industry, academia and all levels of government, focused on building a competitive advantage for Canada through research and innovation. These S&T partnerships position communities to attract talent, investment and economic activity.

Edmonton's Nanotechnology Cluster

Edmonton is home to Canada's fastest-growing nanotechnology cluster, boasting over 20 commercial organizations with world-renowned expertise in specialized nanoscience-related areas. NRC's bold decision to jointly create a state-of-the-art National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT) in cooperation with the University of Alberta and the Government of Alberta has vastly improved Canada's position within the worldwide nanotechnology community. Officially opened in 2006, NINT, Canada's flagship nanotechnology institute, has attracted research talent from all over the world, brought together researchers from both the National Research Council and the University of Alberta, and equipped them with more than $40 million of the latest generation of electron microscopy and other analytical and surface science instrumentation.

The Government of Canada has invested $96 million in NINT since its establishment in 2001. Highlights from NINT's first five years include the establishment of a world-class research facility, attraction of researchers from more than 30 countries to Edmonton, and significant research breakthroughs in nano-electronics, nano-engineering and material science. Other research areas include proteomics and genetic research, new materials development for energy-related applications, and nano-sensors for environmental and medical applications. Collaborative research projects have been established with industry partners such as Xerox Canada, Hewlett-Packard and Edmonton-based ViRexx.

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