OTHER ELECTRONICS AND
NANOTECHNOLOGY
UPDATE
September 2008
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Printable Electronics Technology Center Opens in UK
Expanded Micro and nanotechnology Laboratory at University of Illinois Dedicated
Chembond Chemicals Opens in India
Davis Makes Historic Gift to University at Buffalo Engineering
University’s Cleanroom Center Wins Federal Funds for Phase Four
Expansions at Shishan Science and Technology Industrial Zone, Foshan, Guangdong Province
Lucrative Opportunities at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Portland State University Seeks Closer Saudi Connection
Small Companies Benefit from Persian Gulf Growth
Building work at the state of the art Printable Electronics Technology Centre (PETEC) has been completed, establishing the North East UK as a global leader in innovation for the exciting plastic electronics industry.
Based at NETPark, Sedgefield, a national development and prototyping centre for the development and commercialization of printed electronics spans 32,280 sq. ft. (3,000 square meters), providing high-tech cleanrooms, laboratory space, offices and seminar rooms, which are set to house an impressive range of equipment and highly skilled industry experts.
With the aim of de-risking industrial research and development in printed electronics PETEC, creates a clear route between an innovative idea and a marketable product. The facility is designed to be an ideal platform for both start-ups and larger manufacturing companies to get prototype and pilot-scale production up and running.
Customers of the centre will be able to test design concepts and novel materials for a variety of next-generation products, processes, and services for use in a wide range of markets. Potential innovative products to be developed at the centre include; real-time newspapers, smart packaging, flexible printed lighting and point-of-care medical diagnostic products.
Throughout the remainder of the year innovative equipment, including the roll to roll processing facilities will be installed ahead of the formal opening early in 2009.
On Thursday, September 4, the University of Illinois' hosted Capital Development Board Chairman Anthony Licata and other state officials on campus dedicated the recently expanded Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory (MNTL). The dedication ceremony celebrates the completion of an $18 million, state-funded expansion of one of the nation’s premier and largest research laboratories in academia for micro and nanoelectronics, nanophotonics and optoelectronics, nanomedicine and bionanotechnology, and MEMS/NEMS and integrated systems research. The expansion added new lab, research, classroom and meeting space.
The expansion of the laboratory, evolving out of the National Science Foundation-funded Center for Compound Semiconductor Microelectronics, makes it the par excellence university-based facility for semiconductor, nanotechnology, and biotechnology research," said MNTL Director Rashid Bashir, a Bliss Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Bioengineering, whose own research involves developing nanotechnology-based solutions to address biomedical problems.
Already considered one of one of the world's most advanced centers of nanotechnology, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was ranked among the top three academic institutions in nanotechnology research, education, and facilities by Small Times magazine in 2007. Illinois' global leadership position in nanotechnology is built in part on the diversity of the state’s research and commercial applications for nanotech products in electronics, medicine, and agriculture. and information technology. As nanotechnology becomes a high priority for private, state and federal investment, Illinois universities are responding by formulating plans for expanded nanoscale research. Illinois will continue to partner with the public and private sector to create, grow, and retain technology companies as we continue to help them develop innovative programs.
Researchers at MNTL are pushing the frontiers in many aspects of nanotechnology including:
Nanofabrication – The design and manufacture of devices with dimensions measured in nanometers. One nanometer is a millionth of a millimeter. Nanofabrication is of interest to computer engineers because it opens the door to super-high-density microprocessors and memory chips.
Nanocharacterization – The design and use of instruments required for nanotechnology research and the manipulation of the tiny elements involved.
Nanophotonic crystals – Synthetically manufactured crystals with special electronic and magnetic properties that have a wide range of uses.
Nanobiosensors – Tiny sensors that replicate human senses, such as smell, can be used to locate and identify specific conditions at a molecular level; with applications in national security, agriculture, and food industries.
Chembond Chemicals Limited (Chembond) announced it has inaugurated its latest plant located at Dudhwada in Vadodara district.
“We would now be able to de-bottleneck our Tarapur plant operations and the free capacity there will be used to cater to the growth generated by our other divisions” added Sameer V. Shah, Vice Chairman and Managing Director. Chembond operates two plants at Tarapur for metal treatment chemicals and paints and coatings.
“This is the best plant we have built so far, incorporating professional layouts and design, newer building materials and techniques and appropriate automation and control. Our customers for construction chemicals and water treatment chemicals will be served from this new plant”, said Nirmal V. Shah, Joint Managing Director. Situated on the same site is a specialized laboratory dedicated to construction chemicals product development. The company had last year commissioned its construction chemicals manufacturing plant near Baddi, Himachal Prades
John R. "Jack" Davis, a well-known Western New York industrialist who graduated from the University at Buffalo with a degree in engineering, has given $1.5 million to the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in support of a new high-tech, flagship engineering building to be constructed on UB's North (Amherst) Campus.
The gift is the largest single contribution by an individual in the engineering school's 62-year history.
The Davis gift will support construction of the facility's "clean room," a complex structure devoid of airborne particles or contamination. Clean rooms allow intricate research in nanotechnology, electronics, biomedical engineering and other precise manufacturing fields. In honor of his generosity, the clean room will bear the Davis name.
The new engineering building will modernize programs and facilities for the departments of computer science and engineering, and electrical engineering. Groundbreaking for the building, designed by renowned architects Perkins + Will, is slated for the summer of 2009. In addition to the clean room, the planned 130,000-square-foot structure will boast a "cybertorium" with sophisticated communications devices and smart technology and flexible research labs, classrooms and meeting areas for interdisciplinary work. The facility will allow UB to use existing buildings to expand its teaching in high-demand fields like bioengineering, and boost student enrollment. These goals are aligned with the UB 2020 strategic plan, which aims to grow UB by 40 percent and to invest in areas of strategic research strengths such as information and computing technology, integrated nanostructured systems and mitigation of extreme events and disasters.
The new 5,000-square-foot clean room will be home to electrical engineering faculty members and their students creating everything from solar cells to biosensors to nanoparticles designed to treat human diseases. Located on the building's first floor, it will open onto the main hallway and large windows will allow passersby to view cutting-edge science as it happens. Faculty and students who work in the new UB engineering facility will be required to wear special uniforms to protect lab experiments from skin flakes or hairs.
"The clean room will be the most expensive room in the new building," said Harvey Stenger, dean of UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. "This gift will allow us to increase our new building's impact on Western New York employment and research. The new engineering building reflects a true "private-public" partnership between generous private donors and New York State. The state has provided $49.6 million to finance the basic building structure. UB Engineering is engaged in a fundraising effort to generate additional funds to enhance the function and quality of the building.
The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.
The U.S. Department of Commerce has awarded $750,000 to the University of New Mexico for a manufacturing training and technology center cleanroom.
The funding will be used for the construction and purchase for phase four development of the facility, according to U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.
The center will offer lab-based training to university and community college students in areas such as bio-micro-electromedical and bio/nano fuel cell systems. It will also provide work force development, emerging energy and biotechnology development and the opportunity to commercialize micro/nano products created by small high-tech companies.
Since opening in 2001, the facilities have been used by numerous companies, including Advent Solar, Radiant Technologies, Emcore and MEMX, along with researchers from Sandia National Laboratories.
Taiwan-based LCD display maker TPV Technology has decided to set up a processing area with an annual production value of CNY 30 billion at Shishan Science and Technology Industrial Zone, Foshan, Guangdong Province.
Besides TPV Technology, Chi Mei Optoelectronics, and Taiwan Surface Mounting Technology Corporation have also set up their manufacturing facilities in Shishan.
Chi Lin Technology has invested USD 16.25 million establishing a plant of backlight module. Taiwan Surface Mounting Technology Corp has set up a plant to mainly roll out print circuits with total investment of USD 12.5 million.
Moreover, a host of supporting equipment and main equipment manufacturers are also considering setting up their presence in the industry zone.
With the helps from the technical center of the industry zone, some private companies are shifting their focus from CRT TVs to LCD TVs.
Last year, clean-room manufacturer Huntair Inc.’s revenue was $90 million. This year, the Tualatin-based company’s sales will jump to $175 million, thanks to a huge contract to equip King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, a 14-square-mile graduate research campus rising rapidly on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia.
Huntair isn’t the only Oregon company to land lucrative work in the Arabian peninsula. A swath of other players — architecture firms, engineering consultants, building supplies manufacturers and more — are working with the Persian Gulf states as they engage in a huge wave of building and development.
Saudi Arabia — along with neighbor nations United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman — is turning its $1-billion-per day oil revenue into expansive new cities, industrial zones, tourism centers, housing and plush new universities.
Oregon’s trade with Saudi Arabia has grown strongly since 2002, increasing more than five-fold during that time.
But Oregon still exported just $46.8 million worth of goods to the kingdom in 2007. That’s tiny compared to the state’s $16.5 billion in total worldwide exports last year, and less than 1 percent of total U.S. exports to Saudi Arabia in 2007.
But there’s plenty of demand for the goods and services Oregon has to offer, as Saudi Arabia builds six brand new cities from the ground up. These include King Abdullah Economic City, a 67-square-mile metropolis that will include the new graduate research university.
Saudis are interested in green building materials and methods, renewable energy and water quality control, and nanotechnology — all areas where Oregon has expertise.
Huntair, a microchip manufacturer that employs 500, makes air handling systems and clean rooms for microchip and other electronics manufacturers. The company is supplying the new King Abdullah University, normally known as Kaust, with 187 air handling units worth more than $76 million. The company has also supplied $7 million worth of equipment for a 20,000-square-foot cleanroom that Kaust will use for research and teaching.
More than 20,000 workers have been constructing the campus since ground broke in October. Kaust is slated to open in fall 2009.
Mark Nordstrom, Huntair’s international sales manager, said his company beat out the world’s five biggest air handling manufacturers to win the Kaust job with France-based Oger International S.A.
Oger is one of two contracting firms handling construction of Kaust for Saudi Aramco, the huge nationally-owned oil company that is developing the $10 billion university. Nordstrom expects the contract will help him land more work in the Gulf.
Huntair has already done work in the Middle East, including in Israel, where Intel Corp. has a large plant.
Three American universities have landed $25 million each in research funding from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, the huge $10 billion institution now under construction on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia.
None of them are in Oregon, but that hasn’t discouraged officials at Portland State University from renewing its ties with the school’s 2,000-plus alumni in the Arabian Peninsula.
“Many of these people are in significant positions in government and business,” said Marvin Kaiser, dean of PSU’s college of liberal arts and sciences.
For the past five years, PSU has been sending Kaiser and other officials to Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to hold alumni reunions. It’s part of PSU’s effort to help restore its Middle Eastern Studies Center to its formerly prominent position as a U.S. destination for Arabic and Middle Eastern studies.
Like other American universities, PSU recognizes that the oil-rich nations of the Persian Gulf are seeking top-notch faculty and advisors from universities around the world to help them quickly boost educational attainment in the region.
But years of budget cuts depleted PSU’s Middle Eastern program, to the point where the school doesn’t even offer an undergraduate degree in Arabic.
But all that is about to change, said Kaiser. PSU is now raising money to hire another full-time faculty member in Arabic next fall, and another a year later. A degree in Arabic should be available in three years’ time.
Portland State officials are now holding discussions with a university in Bahrain to design a new undergraduate program for the school. This fall, the university’s Engineering and Technology Management department will launch a version of its master’s program at Al-Ain University in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
With the upsurge of oil-revenue-fueled building and development now under way in the Gulf, there’s also opportunity for PSU’s school of urban and public affairs to extend the training program it now offers three times a year for Chinese officials, teaching them best practices in land use, sustainability and governance.
You don’t have to be a $100 million company to do business with oil-rich Persian Gulf nations.
Warm Springs Composite Products, a tribally-owned, 60-employee company located on the Warm Springs Reservation in Central Oregon, won a huge contract to supply fireproof door material for the World Trade Center in Bahrain about a year-and-a-half ago.
That job brought in more than 10 percent of 2007’s revenue for Warm Springs Composite. This year’s revenue will be between $6.5 million and $7 million, said Jacob Coochise, the company’s global business director.
Coochise expects to hear soon whether his company has landed a contract to supply the Burj Dubai tower, a mixed-use project in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, that’s slated to be the tallest building in the world. He’s also bid on four contracts in Saudi Arabia. Coochise thinks he can double Warm Springs Composite’s current annual sales with contracts from the Persian Gulf states.
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