NANOTECHNOLOGY & OTHER ELECTRONICS
UPDATE
August 2009
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Silver LEED for MSU Chemistry Building
Tower and Jazz Semiconductor Join Forces with SVTC to Expand
Intel Puts Vietnam Plant on Hold
Jite Signs Agreement to Open Kunshan Plant
Mentor Design Centre to Rise in Saudi Arabia
Marshall University to Construct New Applied Science Center
Air Innovations Donates ISO Class 3 Cleanroom to Clarkson University
EXA Engineering and Construction Expand its Business in the Global Market
U.S. Department of Energy Gives a Jump-Start for New Battery Plants
Spain, Portugal Open Nanotechnology Research Center
Rice Wins Stimulus Funding for Physics Building
The addition earned the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design silver certification, the first LEED-certified project on campus. The LEED-certified green building rating system was created by the USGBC to encourage environmentally friendly design, construction practices and operation of buildings.
The addition was part of an $18 million project that also included laboratory renovations. When many of the Chemistry Building’s classrooms and offices moved over to the addition in fall 2007, it opened up 15,000 ft2 of research space. Some of the environmentally friendly features of the addition include recycled green glass in the flooring, low flow fixtures in restrooms, demand ventilation, drip irrigation, recycling stations in the hall and motion sensors for classroom lights.
“The chemistry department was extremely pleased to be part of the first LEED-registered project on campus. The faculty is conducting cutting edge research in green chemistry, so it makes sense for our building to reflect our commitment to sustainability,” says department Chairman John McCracken.
Chemistry faculty Robert Maleczka and Milton Smith earned the 2008 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge award from the EPA.
LEED certification is awarded to buildings that register with the USGBC, where points are awarded to structures for green practices in design and construction. LEED points are awarded on a 100-point scale, weighted based on environmental impact. There are four levels of certification: certified, silver, gold and platinum. Each level of certification is based on the amount of points the structure receives.
Construction standards have been revised to ensure that all buildings must be at least LEED-certifiable in ranking when built, meaning that they must achieve at least 26 LEED points. Six other MSU buildings are in the registration process: Secchia Center, Grand Rapids (2008); MSU Surplus Store and Recycling Center (2008); Kellogg Biological Station dairy barn, Hickory Corners (2008); Brody Hall (2009); Life Science (2009); and Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum (2010).
Tower Semiconductor, Ltd., and its fully owned U.S. Subsidiary jazz Semiconductor, Inc., announced they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with SVTC Technologies that will expand Tower and Jazz's Aerospace and Defense (A&D) MEMS customer base while providing SVTC's A&D customers with access to select Jazz technology and U.S. manufacturing facilities. The collaboration will make possible the integration of advanced CMOS with existing RF and mixed-signal devices, enabling multiple functions on a single piece of silicon in A&D applications such as aircraft radar and communications devices, among others.
Under the agreement, elements of Jazz's MEMS friendly CMOS baseline will be made available to SVTC A&D customers to facilitate the insertion of new modules into a proven CMOS flow. In addition, Jazz will make available components of its design enablement infrastructure to facilitate SVTC customers early design activity. In addition, the companies will implement a fast transfer methodology to allow Jazz customers to perform R&D at SVTC and provide SVTC customers a fast path to production at Jazz.
MEMS (Micro-electro-mechanical systems) devices are one of the fastest growing technology areas, integrating mechanical elements, sensors, actuators, and electronics on a common silicon substrate. They have proven to be a key enabling technology in A&D applications in markets such as transportation and telecommunications. According to a global forecast of the overall MEMS market by the Electronics Industry Market Research and Knowledge Network, the worldwide market for MEMS devices and production equipment was worth an estimated $5 billion in 2005, and will increase to $12.5 billion through 2010, an average annual growth rate (AAGR) of more than 20 percent.
"This partnership brings a strong synergy between the companies in developing and expanding our MEMS capabilities," said Joe Bronson, Chief Executive Officer of SVTC. "Jazz already has a very strong footprint in the Aerospace and Defense industry and this collaboration will enable us to bring together their advanced CMOS with our combined MEMS expertise to develop tools and processes to meet the needs of our customers' next-generation applications."
"We are pleased to form this alliance with SVTC to enable their A&D customers to gain access to our U.S. manufacturing capability for MEMS technology while offering our customers a wider breadth of development options through SVTC helping both companies gain even more traction in this strong growth market. This is an important step in becoming a world leader in full flow MEMS manufacturing," said Russell Ellwanger, Tower's Chief Executive Officer. "I am additionally thrilled to again partner with Joe Bronson, a long time friend and mentor, and hence to grow our respective companies to the benefit of our customers."
Jazz was one of the first pure-play foundries with MEMS manufacturing capability allowing for the industrial scaling of MEMS products in an advanced CMOS foundry environment. Tower and Jazz continue to augment their portfolio of specialty silicon technology including MEMS manufacturing along with their suite of analog and RF CMOS, high speed SiGe, and high voltage processes enhancing the ability of their customers to create and bring to market more highly integrated analog products.
HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM: Owing to unforeseen snags, Intel Corp has reportedly put on the back burner its plans for production at its IC-packaging and test plant in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City.
The company might delay the schedule by at least three quarters, said industry sources.
Intel had announced its IC facility in Ho Chi Minh City back in 2006 and had expected to kick off production by the end of 2009. However, the new decision could mean that the schedule might have to wait till third quarter of year 2010.
A company spokesperson said Intel has enough backend capacity, but the Vietnam facility is critical for the company's business. When completed, the Vietnam plant will supposedly be the largest single factory within the Intel assembly and test network, the company has said. Intel has said that the construction of the facility will be over by end of 2009 and production will begin in 2010.
'The snags are being attributed to the the monsoon and the issue of a contractor not matching up to the company's expectations. The company seems to have taken positive steps in tiding over such obstacles and has continued its push to get the construction done.
The Ho Chi Minh City facility is said to be the first investment of its kind by the semiconductor industry in Vietnam. There are no fabs in the nation.
In early 2006, Intel announced it would invest $300 million to build a semiconductor assembly and test facility in Ho Chi Minh City. Then, later the same year, Intel said it would increase the size of the assembly and test facility it is building in the country from 150,000 square feet to 500,000 square feet. It raised its investment from $300 million to $1 billion.
Intel decided to increase the size of the facility after an internal study determined that 500,000 square feet was the most efficient size for assembly and test facilities. Production was supposed to begin in 2009 and could eventually employ as many as 4,000 people.
The plant, according to Intel, is still critical. Intel is in the process of consolidating its IC-assembly capacity. "Our decision to take offline some older facilities earlier than originally intended (in Malaysia, China and the Philippines) increases Vietnam's importance in this regard," according to the spokesman.
In January of 2009, the chip giant closed two fabs and three IC-assembly factories. Faced with the current IC downturn and slowing sales, the company planned to close two existing assembly test facilities in Penang, Malaysia and one in Cavite, Philippines. It also halted production at Fab 20, an older 200mm wafer fabrication facility in Hillsboro, Ore. Additionally, wafer production operations will end at the D2 facility in Santa Clara, California.
Then, a month later, Intel said it planned to close its IC-packaging plant in Shanghai, China—a move that would eliminate 2,000 jobs. Hit hard by the downturn and slowing sales, Intel plans to shift the operations from Shanghai to Chengdu over the next 12 months.
In July, Intel announced it would eliminate 294 jobs in its Ireland fab operations and related service groups due to reduced demand for older 200mm products manufactured there. The layoff would not impact any of the 300mm jobs in Intel's Fab 24 in Leixlip, County Kildare, Intel said. The company also operates two 200mm fabs in that location.
Jite Technologies Inc. is pleased to announce that it has signed a purchase agreement to acquire 56 acres of land with 17,642 square meters (189,827 sq. ft.)of existing buildings in Kunshan Economic and Technological Development Zone, Jiangsu Province, China. The new plant is purchased from Kunshan Jicheng Precision Components Co., Ltd. for a total consideration of RMB 28 million (approximately $ 4.7 million CAD) in cash. Jite intends to use the purchased land to relocate its existing manufacturing plant in Shenzhen. The present Jite Shenzhen plant was rented in 2006.
Kunshan Economic and Technological Development Zone, located to the Northwest of Shanghai City, was approved as a state-level economic development zone in August 1992. It is one of the largest electronic manufacturing bases in China.
"There were several considerations for Jite's intention to move its present Shenzhen plant to Kunshan," said Mr. Kevin Ming Zhang, CFO of Jite, "Kunshan is close to most of our suppliers in the Yangtze Delta area and it is also close to the representative offices of a large number of Jite's existing and future international customers. The new plant would be a good fit to Jite's current manufacturing capacity, and provide a large portion of land for potential expansion in the future."
Mentor Graphics and the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) in Saudi Arabia will jointly promote and develop electronics design technology in the country.
This cooperation is based on an agreement signed by both parties to establish the Advanced Microelectronics Technology Centre (AMTC) at KACST. The centre will have three programs that will contribute to the Saudi National Strategic Plan: Advanced Technology Program (ATP); Professional Training Program (PTP); and the Incubation Support Program (ISP). These programs are the first steps of cooperation between KACST and Mentor, with more programs running under KACST's AMTC to be initiated later. Under the initial agreement, Mentor will provide comprehensive design automation software as well as consulting and training services. As part of the agreement, the company will cooperate with government bodies and extend its university outreach programs in the country.
"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has developed a strategic national science and technology plan to be carried out over the next 20 years. KACST was assigned the responsibility of planning and managing the execution of the Science and Technology plan. This plan promotes and encourages research in many areas, a very important one being advanced technology in microelectronics," explained Turki Saud Mohamed Al-Saud, VP for research at KACST.
"This cooperation framework will promote and encourage electronics design in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," said Gregory Hinckley, president of Mentor.
Sami Alhamidi, the electronics, communications and photonics programme director at KACST emphasises, "In order to initiate and establish an innovation cycle in the field of electronics design, the electronics community in the kingdom must become proficient with state-of-the-art electronic technologies. Therefore, one of the principal drivers for the successful implementation of the microelectronics R&D plan is the cooperation with world-class global companies specialised in EDA technologies such as Mentor Graphics."
"To support KACST in building their expertise in electronic design methodologies, Mentor Graphics will provide access to certain expertise that already exists in its branch in Egypt. Our consulting division will also provide its knowledge and experience to selected teams at KACST and will cooperate on research in advanced technology areas with KACST and local universities," explained Hazem Eltahawy, managing director of the Egypt operation.
The West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission approved a $25 million grant Aug. 7 for the university's proposed Applied Engineering Complex, which is planned to house several departments.
Funding for the new building comes from a bond sale approved earlier this year. The HEPC approved a list of projects around the state, including the one at Marshall, during the Aug. 7 meeting. Gov. Joe Manchin still must approve the list of projects.
The preliminary plans are for a 140,000-square-foot building to be located along Third Avenue between the Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology Science Center and the Arthur Weisburg Family Engineering Laboratories building.
"Aesthetically, we're looking for something that fits well with that part of campus," President Stephen J. Kopp said.
Preliminary plans also call for the new building to be home to the College of Information Technology and Engineering, the departments of mathematics and computational sciences, a modeling and digital imaging resource facility, engineering and bioengineering research labs and the planned West Virginia High School S.T.E.M. Academy, he said.
"It's a very complex project," Kopp said. "We're looking very futuristically at this."
Although the university cannot set a timeline for the project until more funds are secured, Kopp said he expects the new building to be open within the the next three years.
"This capital project is extremely important to the area," he said. "(It will create) a number of construction jobs and other jobs at a time when we really need them."
The Applied Sciences Center will complement another developing project at Marshall. The Marshall Institute for Interdisciplinary Research relies upon researchers in various areas of science working together, Kopp said.
In addition to bringing existing university departments together under one roof, the Applied Sciences Center will be home to the new state High School S.T.E.M. Academy, which will focus on preparing secondary school students for higher mathematics, Kopp said.
Air Innovations Inc. (AI) announces the donation of a demonstration cleanroom to Clarkson University's Center for Air Resources Engineering and Science (CARES), said AI President and CEO Michael Wetzel. CARES will use the cleanroom for indoor air quality research, including studies of re-suspension of particle transport related to the causes off childhood asthma and upper respiratory disease.
Air Innovations' modular cleanroom contains ultra-low particulate air (ULPA) filters and has a raised perforated floor to attain laminar flow within the space. An ante-room is attached for gowning and infiltration control, Wetzel explained. It is categorized as an ISO Class 3 cleanroom by the International Organization for Standardization, which means it permits fewer than 35 particles of 0.12 microns in size or larger per cubic foot of air, particles about the size of viruses, small bacteria, fumes, and tobacco smoke. By way of example, a typical office space contains hundreds of thousands of particles that size per cubic foot of air. "The raised floor is ideal for wiring and instrumenting the space for airflow and particulate characteristics, while the full height windows on two sides allow for visual demonstrations and student interaction," Wetzel said.
Additionally, the cleanroom features an aluminum distribution plenum, lights and filters in a flush grid. A floor-mounted, vertical Air Innovations AdvancAir® unit is installed adjacent to the room to control temperature and humidity. The AdvancAir unit controls temperature inside the cleanroom within plus or minus 0.5 degrees Fahrenheit, and is a conditioning system similar to the ones Air Innovations builds for pharmaceutical and semiconductor plants around the world. Two recirculation blowers produce 7,000 cubic feet/minute of airflow through the room, which is the equivalent of about 1 mile per hour or 550 air changes per hour.
For the past two years, AI has collaborated with CARES on the R&D and product development of Air Innovations' patent-pending HEPAiRx®, an air purifier and ventilator, which is designed to improve air quality in the bedrooms of people with asthma. In clinical trials conducted by Clarkson, HEPAiRx proved to be effective for reducing particle and gas concentrations, controlling temperature in participants' bedrooms, and improving the participants' asthma symptoms. The Clarkson research, which is being expanded and continued through 2010, is led by Philip K. Hopke, Ph.D., and Andrea R. Ferro, P.E., Ph.D. Hopke is CARES director, Bayard D. Clarkson Distinquished Professor, and Jefferson Science Fellow with the U.S. Department of State; Ferro is an associate professor at Clarkson and a recent U.S. National Science Foundation "CAREER" award recipient.
Wetzel, a 1988 graduate of Clarkson, estimated the replacement value of the 8' wide x 18' long x 12' high cleanroom at $140,000. He said the cleanroom was originally erected for an Intel Corporation demonstration. Wetzel added that space gained by its dismantling will be used to expand the Air Innovations factory, including the build-out of additional cleanroom facilities for controlling environmental conditions during design, testing and production of original equipment manufacturing (OEM) equipment for AI customers in the aerospace, homeland security, pharmaceutical, semiconductor, health care and metrology industries.
EXA Engineering and Construction, a Korean manufacturer of technological devices and construction-related materials, plans to expand its business in the global market by taking full advantage of its partnership with LG, the country's second-largest industrial conglomerate.
"Ever since we passed the product quality test and started to supply products to LG, buyers in the United States have also started to recognize the quality of our products,"Koo bon-hyon, CEO of EXA E&C, said in an interview. Koo is related to the founder of LG Group, a major family-run conglomerate in Korea.
"The partnership with LG has given us bigger opportunities to increase presence in the local market as well as to target the global market."
EXA E&C has been producing parts for industrial cleanroom and temperature compensated crystal oscillators that are applied to telecom modules for big companies in Korea.
Even with strong business ties with LG, Koo is not complacent. Consistent investment in new technologies is the only way for the company to secure long term growth, he said.
Carbon nanotubes, often called as CNTs, are the main focus of the company.
"We see our future with CNTs particularly with their ability to produce heat." Koo said.
By acquiring Nanotech in late 2007, the company has been developing CNTs as a thermal conduction device applied in heaters, radiators, displays, steering wheels of cars, water purifiers, and even bidets.
CNTs have been in the spotlight for widespread industrial applications, ranging from aviation to sports, fabrics, electronics, energy, cosmetics and water purification. Nanomaterials, which are strong, shock-resistant yet feather-light, have been known as not aligning with natural water because they are all made of carbon.
The company has been making investment in the development of CNT technology with 4 billion ($3.2 million) only in 2008. EXA E&C estimates 3-4 billion won of sales of CNT applied products this year.
"The company holds a number of patent rights regarding CNT technology. The technology is little known in the market until now but will give enormous impact probably starting next year." the 42-year-old CEO said.
The CNT application will make the products slimmer in size and help consumer save energy. Global companies have been eyeing on EXA's technological advancement in the CNT sector, the CEO said. The company is in talks with Korean big firms and manufacturers in Japan, the United States and China and possibly will start to sell CNT products later this year.
Cleanroom business still takes the biggest portion of the company's revenue but the company will keep developing new business models for the company's future.
The development of core technologies applied to biogas plants is another future option for the company. EXA has participated in biogas plant construction in Songpa in southern Seoul, which is currently the biggest plant in Korea. Biogas burns methane gas collected from food waste, livestock manure and sewage to produce electricity and hot water
"With the government's policy banning waste disposal at sea by the year 2012, municipal administrations have to think about what they would do with daily waste," he said.
Under the "London Protocol" all dumping of waste in the sea is prohibited, except for some acceptable materials listed in the agreement. Korea has joined the protocol.
The Energy Department is getting ready to hand out about $2 billion in grants to create a domestic industry for electric-car batteries, and 122 companies are scrambling to get pieces.
The companies range from small niche firms to giants such as Dow Chemical and Johnson Controls. All are promising a combination of innovation and ability to deliver new products on a commercial scale to prevent the United States from trading dependence on foreign oil or reliance on foreign-made batteries.
"We've had 20 years of bad behavior in the United States in terms of developing ideas into products," said Mary Ann Wright, chief executive of Johnson Controls's joint venture developing hybrid battery systems.
Now policy-makers hope that helping domestic battery manufacturers will produce economic savings that often come with large-scale production and which are needed to make electric cars affordable. With funds provided by the stimulus bill in February, the Energy Department can cover up to half the cost of a battery-related project.
"This investment will not only reduce our dependence on foreign oil, it will put Americans back to work," President Obama said in March. "It positions American manufacturers on the cutting edge of innovation and solving our energy challenges."
The federally funded battery effort has its skeptics. Grants are expected to focus on lightweight lithium-ion batteries similar to those found in laptops. They are the newest thing in a business that had not changed much since lead-acid batteries were invented a century and a half ago.
But U.S. hopefuls face stiff competition from foreign firms such as Japan's Panasonic and Sony, and South Korea's LG Chem, which already dominate the lithium-ion battery market in power tools, laptops and cellphones. Some domestic firms have recruited foreign companies as partners in new U.S.-based manufacturing facilities.
Some industry experts also note that lithium-ion batteries may not be ready for tough road conditions, that they generate a lot of heat and that there is no infrastructure for recycling them. For the moment, it is easier to recycle lead-acid batteries, like those in combustion-engine cars, or nickel-metal hydride batteries, like those in the current generation of hybrid vehicles.
Nonetheless, Obama has set a goal of having 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015 and the Energy Department is trying to make sure a large share of them are powered by U.S.-made batteries. In addition to the $2 billion in grants it is expected to announce soon, the Energy Department can also lend from a separate $25 billion program. It has already announced a $1.6 billion loan to help Nissan develop an electric car, including the construction of a new battery plant, and a $465 million loan for Tesla Motors, part of which would go to a battery-pack facility that would stock Tesla and Daimler.
One of the smaller firms seeking Energy Department grants is run by Charles Haba, who was part of the team that pioneered semiconductors at Fairchild Semiconductor and later at Intel. Haba seeks $100 million in grant money to cover half of the cost for a lithium-ion battery plant in Los Angeles. The city wants to install 400 megawatts of energy storage, and lithium-ion batteries can store energy from solar and wind facilities as they help provide a more continuous supply of energy from those sources.
Haba says that "a lot of the techniques of the semiconductor industry were directly applicable" to help make the systems more effective and to come up with arrays that made it easier to manage the large amount of heat that the batteries give off. Haba's nine-year-old company, iCel, has already produced small quantities of batteries for specialty uses, such as movie-camera battery packs or television lighting.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero hailed the opening of a joint scientific research center with Portugal as the dawning of a new age of discovery for the two countries.
Zapatero and Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates were among dignitaries who attended the opening of the Iberian nanotechnology research center in northern Portugal, which is expected to attract the world's top minds in the field of submolecular research.
"In the age of discovery, we had a lot of success. With this project, Portugal and Spain will chart a new atlas of innovation and will make new discoveries," he said during the televised ceremony in Braga, 375 km (230) miles) north of Lisbon near the Spanish border.
The center will work in the fields of nanomedicine, environmental monitoring, nanoelectronics and molecular nanomanipulation. Nano research, which is conducted at submolecular and subatomic levels, has possible applications in medicine, robotics, computers, food and even cosmetics.
With an initial investment of $140 million and an expected annual costs of €30 million to be paid by Spain and Portugal, the center will be the first nanotechnology lab with the status of an international organization. This will make the hiring of scientists from other countries easier.
A total of 200 scientists and 100 doctorate students will work on 160,000 sq. ft. of research space. Forty have already been hired and are undergoing specialized training. The center will be fully operational by mid-2010.
"The institute will attract and engage the world's greatest investigators in these areas," Socrates said.
"It's fantastic that NIST has recognized the tremendous opportunities in physics-related research at Rice, and this new facility will enable Rice to remain on the cutting edge of physical science research," said James Coleman, Rice's vice provost for research.
The 110,000-square-foot Brockman Hall for Physics will support research and education in fundamental and applied physics of direct relevance to the missions of the U.S. Department of Commerce and NIST. Research conducted there will encompass atomic/molecular/optical physics, biophysics, condensed-matter physics, nanomaterials and photonics. Faculty from Rice's Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering will occupy the building, which is under construction and scheduled to open in spring 2011.
Barry Dunning, chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, said the facility brings together a research team that has been spread across as many as six buildings at Rice. The researchers have often had to conduct experiments in the dead of night to avoid traffic on nearby streets or even in the building that would skew results from highly sensitive instruments. "These are going to be absolutely state-of-the-art facilities, so we can do research and not be limited by the available space, vibration, humidity -- all the things we've had problems with in the past."
"This will really give us cutting-edge facilities -- the equal of any other in the world -- for the kind of high-precision measurements we want to do," said Douglas Natelson, a Rice associate professor of physics and astronomy and in electrical and computer engineering, who was named last year by Discover magazine as one of the nation's top 20 scientists under 40.
"We've been thinking from the very beginning of this process about what purpose this building will serve and how to get the most value for our investment," said Kathleen Matthews, the Stewart Memorial Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology who recently stepped down as dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences. "The contributions from the academic side -- from the faculty through the chair and the dean -- have been invaluable. The fact that NIST has given us this award is a wonderful validation of the hard work of the team that developed this proposal."
Dan Carson, dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences, said, "The NIST funding provides not only an impressive and tangible demonstration of the timeliness and importance of the Brockman Hall for Physics building project, but also the culmination of literally years of dedicated work by Dr. Matthews, (Rice project manager) Pat Dwyer and others.
"This highly significant award will provide the Wiess School and Rice University significantly more flexibility in planning and program development at a critical time. We are absolutely thrilled to have received this award and will move aggressively to ensure that we maximize its impact."
The building is expected to earn silver status under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.
The architect is KieranTimberlake Associates in Philadelphia. External project management services are provided by Linbeck, and Gilbane Building Company is the construction contractor.
The building previously received a naming gift from the A. Eugene Brockman Charitable Trust.
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