OTHER ELECTRONICS
AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
UPDATE
April 2008
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Oakland University Joins Nanotechnology Research
Palomar Microelectronics Expands Cleanroom
Hon Hai Opens Facility and Plans More
NanoImaging Services Relocates to Larger Facility in La Jolla, CA
TU/e Invests €15 Million in New Complexity Institute
Hon Hai Makes Inroads into Russia with PC Plant Plan
Renesas Technology Corp. Builds in China
The diameter of three to six atoms (depending on the element), it's one-billionth of a meter, one thousandth of the width of a human hair; ten to the power of minus 9. All of these are ways to describe a nano — a small word at the root of a growing scientific field, nanotechnology, that's bringing big business to Southeast Michigan.
Stated simply, nanotechnology is the science of manipulating and constructing objects at the atomic level. The field's vast potential stems from the fact that substances at nanoscale levels often possess different properties than they do at larger levels and consequently can be made into products with novel characteristics and applications. Scientists have been toiling with nanoscale science for hundreds of years, but it was only in the last decade that "nanotechnology" became a research priority of the federal government and entered the layman's lexicon.
Nanotechnology applications encompass everything from medicine, sports and food to communications, clothing, and environmental protection. The landscape of products and systems potentially affected by this emerging technology is as vast and wide as daily life itself. And needless to say, the economic implications are tremendous. Michigan has committed itself to developing a "technology corridor" in southeast Michigan in order to support new industries and related job markets. Local universities have placed a heavy emphasis on nanotech research and their faculties, most notably those at the University of Michigan, have started up a number of nanotech-based firms.
Of specific importance to local nanotechnology firms is the Engineering Research Center for Wireless Integrated MicroSystems (WIMS), which was established in 2000 by the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Michigan Technological University. The Ann Arbor-based center, which is funded in part by the National Science Foundation, is merging micropower circuits, wireless interfaces, biomedical and environmental sensors and subsystems, and advanced packaging to create microsystems that will permeate virtually every aspect of society during the next 20 years.
The center this month dedicated an expansion of its $100 million cleanroom semiconductor processing laboratory, that makes it "one of the best facilities in the country at a university for performing research on nanotechnology and solid-state devices," says Ken Wise, WIMS Director.
"Many industrial firms use our clean room to develop prototype devices," he says. "We really act as a resource in providing processes and fabrication capabilities in the industry."
Among the start-ups gaining ground is Ann Arbor-based NanoBio Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company working to develop new products for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. Founded in 2000 as a spin-off from the University of Michigan's Center for Biologic Nanotechnology, NanoBio has received some $31 million in federal and state grants and $30 million in private funding to develop aniti-infectants and mucosal vaccines that may hit the commercial market as early as 2010.
K-space, also in Ann Arbor, a leading manufacturer of in-situ thin-film and wafer characterization technologies. These products are attached to the machinery used by manufacturers of nanoscale materials to provide information on temperature, stress and other indicators of whether the production process — being too small to see with the naked eye — is occurring properly. The company, founded in 1992 by two University of Michigan scientists, has seen its sales rise from $2 million to $5 million a year.
The company is building a new facility on two acres in Dexter, where it will move in about month.
Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, is also getting in on the nanotech game. In 2006 it signed on a nanotechnologist to be its new vice provost for research. Tachung C. Yih, who came to Oakland from the University of Texas San Antonio, predicts that nanotechnology will give birth to the "third industrial revolution." What this means, he says, is that nanotechnology will revolutionize health care and environmental protection in the same way that transportation and manufacturing were revolutionized during the first industrial revolution and computation and communications were revolutionized during the second.
He has steered the university into partnerships with local firms to focus on structural DNA, the application of nanoparticles to solar cells, and the development of student and faculty internships. He has also helped lead the university's efforts to collaborate with William Beaumont Hospitals on the creation of new medical school that will begin training "technically savvy" clinicians beginning in 2010.
Yih also has helped organize a major opportunity for researchers, academics, entrepreneurs and manufacturers to discuss research, uses and ethics surrounding nanotechnology. The event, the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Conference, will take place in August at Oakland University and is drawing participants from across the country as well as from Jordan, Mexico, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Palomar Technologies, a provider of precision automation equipment and process development for the microelectronic assembly, announces the expansion of its cleanroom assembly area for Palomar Microelectronics assembly services. Palomar has reportedly tripled its cleanroom space and increased its prototyping, applications engineering, process development, assembly, and test services capabilities with its new 2,500 sq. ft. class 100K and 500 sq. ft. class 10K cleanrooms.
Palomar Microelectronics was established a year ago to fill a perceived process gap manufacturers experience when expanding production or developing new technologies. Palomar process engineers work with device manufacturers to develop new products, using Palomar's facilities for product development, prototyping, test, and assembly services, as well as continued process development during or after manufacturing services.
Processes include advanced wire bonding, gold ball bumping, and precision component placement for semiconductor packages, high power LEDs, MEMS devices, microwave and RF components, optoelectronic packages, multichip modules, and hybrids.
The new cleanroom space allows microelectronic services for many of the emerging technologies in areas such as MEMS, high bright LEDs, and other advanced packaging applications and to speed delivery of these services.
Process piping solutions provider NEHP, Inc. has moved its production facilities to a new 15,000 square-foot building in Williston, Vermont. With cleanrooms of Class 1,000 and 10,000 and two demarcated fabrication and production areas in the building, the move also holds the promise of further expansion with permits for the addition of a further 10,000 square feet.
The new facility will house all of NEHP’s production processes, with semiconductor, solar and life sciences work being carried out under one roof.
Hon Hai Group has activated its production plant in Vietnam, and plans to build new plants in Vietnam's Bac Ninh Province, Bac Giangi Province and Vinh Phuc Province. The group has acquired 1,000 hectares of land in Vinh Phuc as a Taiwanese supplier with the largest manufacturing base in the province.
Noteworthy is that Hon Hai has placed great efforts in Vinh Phuc Province because the province is quite close to China's Guangxi Province where the group has had a plant.
Compal has bought 326 hactares of land space in Vinh Phuc Province, while Wistron and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Inc. have planned to jointly set up an industrial park in the same province. These moves are expected to cluster more Taiwanese companies and form integral supply chains there.
Compal has kicked off construction of its production base in Vietnam since the end of last November, which is scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of this year and mass production in the first quarter of next year. To meet Compal's construction schedule, its related subcontractors will also settle their production lines in the base by the end of this year, when there will be a total of over 2,000 workers there.
Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman presented the Sandia/LANL Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT) with the Department of Energy Award for Achievement at the bi-annual DOE project management workshop in Washington, DC. held in late March.
The $75 million project, completed on schedule and under budget, was one of two DOE engineering/construction projects to receive recognition in project management.
The CINT project team was praised for effective management of the construction and instrumentation of two new research facilities, totaling over 130,000 square feet of laboratory, cleanroom, office, and storage space.
Formally completed in April 2007, initial operations in the new facilities were able to start much earlier in 2006.
The integrated Sandia/LANL project team credited extensive intra-team communication and planning for their ability to respond to unanticipated challenges such as the LANL “stand-down,” federal budget continuing resolutions, and construction cost escalations.
Now in its second year of operations, CINT is managed by a joint Sandia/LANL team, led by Codirectors Robert Hwang (Sandia) and Antoinette (Toni) Taylor (LANL).
Purdue and Notre Dame partner up for the new Midwest Academy for Nanoelectronics and Architectures center in Indiana.
The Semiconductor Research Corp. and the National Institute of Standards and Technology entered into a partnership to support research innovation in nanoelectronics along with the Nanoelectronics Research Institute. The center is the newest of three existing centers which are located in California, Texas and New York.
The center will be the first in the Midwest and will give Indiana national leadership in nanoelectronics.
The consortium also includes Purdue University, the University of Illinois, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Michigan, Argonne National Laboratory, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.
Also participating in the joint announcement were representatives of the Nanoelectronics Research Initiative (NRI) of the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., Indiana Speaker of the House B. Patrick Bauer, South Bend Mayor Steve Luecke, Purdue Interim Provost Vic Lechtenberg, Notre Dame vice president for research Robert Bernhard, and Notre Dame's president, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.
"The Midwest Academy for Nanoelectronics and Architecture is a giant stride in the development of the technology of small things," Fr. Jenkins said. "It promises to move us past the limits currently imposed by the laws of physics and enable the building of advanced devices, circuits and systems that will be faster, more powerful and more compact than those that currently power our cell phones, computers and other electronic devices."
Direct support for MANA from the public and private sectors and the participating universities will total more than $25 million over three years. Notre Dame also will offer other additional support. The consortium organizers anticipate that additional funds will be obtained through federal grant applications under the National Nanotechnology Initiative, for which the federal government plans to allocate $1.5 billion a year.
The SRC-NRI has previously funded three centers: at the University of Texas, UCLA and the University of Albany. The addition of MANA to the current national Nanoelectronics Research Initiative brings the considerable research expertise of Midwestern universities, and national laboratories located in the region, to the effort to develop a new class of semiconductor materials and devices.
Conventional microelectronic technology has relied on shrinking transistors to produce increasingly smaller, faster and cheaper devices ranging from cell phones and personal music devices to laptop computers. However, because the laws of physics prevent conventional devices from working below a certain size, this method is nearing its physical limits. The continued shrinking of transistors will lead to various problems with electric leakage, power consumption and heat.
MANA's mission will be to explore and develop advanced devices, circuits and nanosystems with performance capabilities beyond conventional devices.
Its Center for Nano Science and Technology, established in 1999, explores the fundamental concepts of nanoscience in order to develop unique engineering applications using nano principles. The center is composed of a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the Departments of Electrical Engineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Physics. "Notre Dame will reconfigure existing space to make the state of the art research facility," said Scott Stevens, cardinal communications for the Semiconductor Research Corp.
There are many companies and universities involved in the research process.
The center is responsible for figuring out what kinds of materials will go into long-range semiconductor solutions and will be focusing on the research of nanoelectronics.
The professors will select teams of graduate or Ph.D. students to propose projects for finding new materials and processes. They are looking for the best talent in the country in order to have the best people on the job.
NanoImaging Services, Inc., the leading provider of high-resolution, three-dimensional (3D) transmission electron microscope (TEM) imaging services to manufacturers of large molecule biopharmaceuticals, announced that it has moved to a larger facility in La Jolla, Calif. The new 2,500-square-foot facility will enable NanoImaging Services to expand the capacity of its service laboratory and add new employees in an effort to accommodate its growing biopharmaceutical client base.
NanoImaging benefited from early support and funding from Merck Capital Ventures, LLC, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., and FEI Company. The company's new location is 10931 North Torrey Pines Road, # 108, San Diego, CA 92037 USA. industry.
Eindhoven University of Technology March 27, 2008 The TU/e is going to invest €15 million in a new institute to be set up: the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS). This was decided on Thursday 20 March by the university administration. The ICMS will begin next month.
University researchers Wolfgang Porod and Craig S. Lent are co-inventors of Quantum-Dot Cellular Automata (QCA), a transistorless approach which does not rely on flowing electrons to transmit a signal, so no electric current is produced and heat problems are avoided. This approach, along with devices based on quantum-mechanical tunneling, spin and nonequilibrium carrier distributions, comprise the research and development focus of MANA.
The establishment of MANA marks another important milestone in Notre Dame's evolution as a pre-eminent research university. Strategic investment in staff and infrastructure facilities; including the new Stinson-Remick Hall, which will allow pioneering work in circuitry, have enabled the University to support complex research efforts like MANA.
MANA also closely ties Notre Dame to the economic development initiatives of the state of Indiana and the city of South Bend. It is anticipated that MANA commercialization activities will occur in the new Innovation Park at Notre Dame. The city of South Bend anticipates that these commercialization activities may also occur in a nanoelectronic development facility it is developing in the former Studebaker corridor area in downtown South Bend.
"The city of South Bend also is committing additional millions of dollars over several years to complete preparation of the Studebaker corridor into a future hub of nanoelectronics commercialization and manufacturing in support of new jobs and investment associated with the Midwest Academy of Nanoelectronics and Architectures," Luecke said. "Where Studebaker once made wagons and Oliver made chilled plows, we're expecting thousands of jobs with dozens of nanoelectronic companies creating technological wonders that have yet to be imagined."
"From an economic development perspective, we see this as the most significant venture that the community has had the opportunity to pursue in the last 150 years," said Patrick McMahon, executive director of Project Future, which serves as a catalyst between the St. Joseph County community and prospective businesses. "Given that we are talking about a trillion dollar industry, if we can capture the spin off aspects into local jobs and business activity, it could completely transform our local economy for years to come."
SRC is a consortium of six major companies in the U.S. semiconductor manufacturing business that includes IBM, Intel, Micron, Texas Instruments, AMD, and Freescale.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. is planning to set aside 32 million euro, approximately NT$1.5 billion, to set up a personal-computer assembly plant in Russia through its subsidiary--Foxconn SA B.V.
In addition, Hon Hai will also allocate US$12 million to set up production facilities for consumer electronics and personal computers in Sandong province, China.
Hon Hai will also step up deployment in Latin America by increasing US$50 million in investment in its overseas subsidiary-Margini Holdings Ltd. in a bid to expand its global network.
Recently Russia has been center of attention for international investors as it is expected to achieve double-digit growth in fixed investments in the future. At the end of last year Hon Hai resolved to cooperate with the U.S.-based Hewlett Packard Corp. to jointly invest US$50 million to tap the Russian market.
Renesas Technology Corp. announced plans to invest $39.9 million (4 billion yen) to add a new building at its back-end process plant, Renesas Semiconductor Beijing Co (RSB), to increase capacity for MCU production.
In doing so, Renesas aims to increase its current estimated global MCU market share from 25 percent to 30 percent. The move follows a building and manufacturing facilities sale in January to Mitsubishi Electric Corp as Japan-based Renesas honed its MCU focus. Renesas is also streamlining its back-end process resources by increasing production at overseas facilities for high-volume products to remain price competitive, the company said.
The new building is expected to be completed and ready for full operation by the end of fiscal 2008. The expansion effort is expected to increase the production floor area by 60 percent, from 18,000 m2 to 29,000 m2. The company estimated that with the expansion, RSB's total manufacturing capacity for MCUs, mixed-signal ICs, and other products will increase from 50 million units per month in fiscal 2007 to 100 million units in fiscal 2012. According to Renesas, the newly expanded facility will operate as one of the world's largest MCU plants for back-end manufacturing.
Besides RSB in Beijing, Renesas also owns a back-end process plant in Suzhou, China. Together, both plants manufacture 70 million units, with total capacity expected to grow to 140 million units in fiscal 2012 after the new plant is operational.
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