Rice University has been awarded an $11.1 million grant by the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology to provide cost-shared support for the construction of new scientific research facilities.

NIST funds, matched by $33.4 million from the university, will go toward construction of the new Brockman Hall for Physics. Rice expects the cost of the building to be $44.5 million.

When completed, Rice will consolidate activities research in fundamental and applied physics, which now are conducted in six different buildings across the campus, and promote collaborative interactions.

The 110,000-square-foot facility will include vibration- and noise-controlled laboratories located underground to support work in atomic, molecular and optical physics, biophysics, condensed matter physics, nanoengineering and photonics. Brockman Hall will include 16 physics labs, six engineering physics labs, faculty and graduate offices, conference rooms and a lecture hall. The building will house a significant portion of the Rice Department of Physics and Astronomy as well as faculty from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering who are pursuing research in applied physics.

In addition, the new facility will support research in areas with direct relevance to NIST’s mission, including nanoscale science and technology, atomic physics, quantum physics, optical technology, electron and optical physics, microelectronics, semiconductor electronics and biophysics.

The facility is expected to be completed and occupancy to begin by spring 2011.

Funding for the award comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which has earmarked funding to help support the construction of new or expanded research science buildings.

Flextronics Opens Taiwan Notebook Facility

Flextronics International Ltd has opened a strategic facility in Banciao, Taiwan with dedicated design, R&D and supporting services for notebook computers. The Computing Segment Notebook Center (CSNC) will provide ODM and joint design manufacturing products and services for notebook OEMs. It is estimated that Flextronics' computing segment will employ over 1,500 engineers over the next few years.

"We chose to invest in Taiwan based on the country's strong talent pipeline, computing industry focus, excellent supply chain and solid reputation for ODM services," explained Sean Burke, president of Flextronics' computing segment. "Establishing a strong computing presence in Taiwan is a significant advantage for Flextronics and our customers, where we already serve many leading brand name OEMs. I look forward to further enhancing our customer offering for notebooks and to working with local Flextronics' suppliers, employees and partners on many shared successes."

The new facility expands Flextronics' existing presence in Taiwan, where the company has operations in Wugu and Chungli. Flextronics' Computing Segment Design Center in Wugu provides ODM and joint design manufacturing products and services for OEMs of servers, storage, desktops and other computing-related products.

Carbon Nanopores to Open its HQ near Philadelphia

Proximity to the Philadelphia-area biopharma cluster and the availability of grants targeted to the needs of early-stage companies have persuaded a developer of high-resolution probes used for atomic-force microscopy to establish a new headquarters in the Philadelphia suburb of Malvern.

Carbon Nanoprobes produces carbon nanotubes, which are cylindrically shaped carbon molecules 10,000 times thinner than a human hair and mounted on silicon pyramids. It adds the nanotubes to the silicon tips of atomic-force microscopes, which improves their resolution by tenfold and allows them to produce three-dimensional, atomically scaled images of objects.

The company, which had been based in Seattle's Washington Technology Center, has begun shipping its product to customers that include semiconductor companies and basic research labs. Its nanotubes sell for $250 apiece.

CEO Brian Ruby told BioRegion News this week his company was drawn to its new Malvern HQ in part because of its closeness to some of its potential customers — namely the pharmaceutical and biotech companies that comprise the greater Philadelphia life-sci cluster.

The cluster recently surpassed the San Francisco Bay Area and placed second only to Boston/Cambridge, Mass., in a Milken Institute report that updated its ranking of the nation's top life-sciences clusters.

"On a cultural level, you've got a pretty fervent and fertile startup community, much more so than I had anticipated. We've had a tremendous number of good vendors, some of whom have asked for stock. This is not something I expected on the East Coast," Ruby said. "I saw it a lot on the West Coast, and I think it's absolutely essential toward successfully building one of these firms, because it aligns everybody's interests, and it seems to be very, very much prevalent out here, too."

The company's new headquarters is situated within 4,522 square feet at 363 Phoenixville Pike, part of the single-building, 104,400-square-foot 335-395 Phoenixville Pike owned by BioMed Realty Trust.

Privately held Carbon Nanoprobes is basing nine employees, including Ruby, at the Malvern HQ. That number will grow over time, Ruby said, adding: "I can't get into specifics, but I can say we have a very aggressive growth strategy."

Carbon Nanoprobes has received $500,000 in working capital in two tranches from the Life Sciences Greenhouse for Central Pennsylvania, or LSGPA. One tranche came from LSGPA's Technology Development Fund, which invests up to $250,000 in projects that show commercial promise but need additional development of the business model, proof-of-concept, or prototype.

The other tranche came from the greenhouse's Gap Fund, which makes convertible debt-to-equity or straight equity investments in pre-seed stage companies ranging from $250,000 to $1 million. It also requires companies to match their award from the LSGPA.

The greenhouse is one of three incubators created by the state to nurture startup companies in the life sciences and other technologies, using a portion of the state's share of the 1999 nationwide tobacco settlement.

LSGPA came across Carbon Nanoprobes through the greenhouse's liaison to Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pa., where the company had a working relationship with researchers that included Randen Patterson of the Eberly College of Science. The company had hoped to use the college's nanofabrication facility, but found the equipment and expertise it wanted at the Washington Technology Center in Seattle.

Ruby said the tech center had a piece of needed equipment that produced carbon nanotubes and cost "a few hundred thousand" dollars, "so we had to go there. In my industry, you kind of have to follow the (capital expenditure)," Ruby said.

Also putting money on the proverbial table was the Chester County Economic Development Corp. The private, nonprofit agency helped draw Carbon Nanoprobes to the county's state-created Chester County Keystone Industrial Zone, where early-stage life-sci and information technologies in business for eight years or less are eligible for tax credits — as well as grants toward hiring interns and training staffers.

Within the Chester County KIZ, companies are eligible to receive up to $5,000 per person per year for staff training, and up to $4,000 per person per year for the placement of interns within the KIZ company.

Ruby said the grants, which are awarded first-come, first-served, have "enabled us to create jobs we might not normally have." The training grants allowed the company to hire consultants that have helped it by sharing their expertise in better using equipment, he said.

According to its web site, the Chester County KIZ alone is home to about a dozen life-sci companies, including Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Centocor Ortho Biotech, Frontage Laboratories, Melior Discovery, Neuronetics, Molecular Targeting Technologies, Progenra, Promedior, Reaction Biology, and Tetralogic Pharmaceuticals.

Unlike other KIZ zones across Pennsylvania, Chester County's KIZ consists of seven nodes with numerous corporate parks along the US 202 corridor where life-sci and other high-tech businesses are clustered, rather than a single zone anchored by a university or research institute.

"The reason for that is because we have so many life science and biotech companies in this part of the region," said Tim Connor, senior director with the Chester County Economic Development Corp.

Photronics to Close Shanghai, China Facility

Photronics, Inc., a supplier of innovative imaging technology solutions for the global electronics industry, announced that it is closing its integrated circuit photomask manufacturing facility in Shanghai, China. The closure is consistent with Photronics strategy to reduce costs and lower its operational breakeven point.

In connection with the announced closure, Photronics expects to record an after tax charge of approximately $10 million to $14 million in fiscal 2009. Approximately 90% of the total charges will be attributed to non-cash items. The Company also estimates that 75 employees will be affected by the closure. Due to the ability to service customers from other Photronics' locations, the Company expects minimal, if any revenue impact.

"While we remain extremely optimistic in our ability to continue growing our business within Asia, the integrated circuit mask market in China is not materializing as we had hoped," explained Constantine S. Macricostas, Photronics' chairman and chief executive officer. "Unfortunately China's photomask market remains relatively small and we do not foresee a viable path to profitability within an acceptable timeframe. To retain our cost competitiveness we must align our manufacturing capacity with end-market demand," concluded Mr. Macricostas.

After the closure, Photronics will have nine global manufacturing facilities with four located within Asia. The remaining Asian locations include Korea, Singapore, and two sites in Taiwan. Once completed the Company expects to realize annual savings ranging from $4 to $5 million.

LG Electronics to add 1,200 Jobs in Reynosa, Mexico

LG Electronics is expanding production at its maquiladora, creating 1,200 new jobs, the South Korean manufacturer announced.

As part of the plan, the electronics giant will fold its facility in Mexicali, B.C.N., Mexico, into the Reynosa plant, a consolidation that the company expects to finish by September.

Additionally, the company will invest $100 million over the next three years in Mexico in an attempt to increase annual production to $4 billion by 2012, according to a news release. The company produced $2.6 billion in goods last year.

"As we looked at the need to improve efficiency, it just made sense to consolidate," said John Taylor, a spokesman for the company, South Korea's second-largest electronics manufacturer. "There's lots of new equipment in Reynosa for the building and the assembly of LCD and plasma TVs and a very highly trained workforce."

LG operates three facilities in Mexico, including the Mexicali and Reynosa operations. The third is in Monterrey and manufactures refrigerators and electronic ovens. The Reynosa plant produces LCD and plasma televisions.

Most of the new will be laborers, Taylor said, adding he did not have a breakdown of how many positions would be in management. Many maquila managers live on the U.S. side of the border and commute to work.

The news is welcome in Reynosa, where auto suppliers have shed workers and where other maquiladoras have scaled back production and shortened the work week amid the global recession.

But the new positions will do little to offset the tremendous job losses of recent months, including a nearly 5.3 percent decline in employment in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

LG's transition represents a larger trend of manufacturers looking to Mexico, especially during the recession, to cut costs and produce goods closer to the North American market, said Keith Patridge, the president and chief executive officer of the McAllen Economic Development Corp.

A total of 15 companies have indicated in recent months that they are moving production at nearly 20 plants to facilities in Reynosa, he said. He declined to provide names, saying the deals have not been finalized.

"This is just really the beginning," Patridge said. "We're in the center of the population belt in North America. Strategically, we're in a good location."

Already this year, three companies with maquiladoras in Reynosa have announced production expansions. BSN Medical, a German medical products company, said in April that it was moving 163 from a facility in Florida to Reynosa.

Rowe International Corp, an iconic jukebox maker, told 100 employees at its Michigan facility in March that it was moving to Reynosa.

And Corning Cable Systems, a subsidiary of Corning Inc., said in January that it was shifting some production to Reynosa. Patricia McVey, a company spokeswoman, declined to say how many were created.

Bill Gilmer, a senior economist with the El Paso branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, cautions that the movement does not represent a trend yet. Reynosa still faces enormous problems from the worldwide downturn in consumer spending, among a number of recession concerns.

It's unlikely that sales of autos, or a host of electronics and appliances manufactured in Reynosa, will return to their pre-recession levels, he said.

Clemson Nanotechnology Safety Study Gets Funds from EPA

Clemson scientist Stephen Klaine has been awarded two $400,000 EPA grants to study a subject that did not exist a decade ago. Klaine is part of the young field of nano-ecotoxicology: the investigation of the impact that nanoparticles have on the environment.

Stephen Klaine is interim director of the Clemson Institute of Environmental Toxicology. An aquatic toxicologist, Klaine's research has focused on interactions between manufactured materials and the environment, particularly how man-made chemicals affect water and organisms in rivers and streams. His most recent work has investigated the toxicological effects of pharmaceuticals in Lake Conestee and the Reedy River in Upstate South Carolina. With these EPA grants, Klaine will study the behavior of carbon nanomaterials in aquatic environments and how carbon nantotubes affect the aquatic food chain.

"Nano-ecotoxicology looks at topics we are just beginning to frame questions for," Klaine said. "How and how much will engineered nanoparticles interact with the environment? How will these phenomenally small particles interact with organisms — fish, plants, insects, bacteria — and soils and sediments? Before we can begin to understand their impact we have to find ways to know what we are looking for and analyze the results."

Nanotechnology is the science of the fantastically small. A nanometer is 1 billionth of a meter. A typical piece of paper is 100,000 nanometers thick; a penny measures 19 million nanometers wide; one inch equals 25.4 million nanometers. Carbon nanotubes are made entirely of carbon atoms and have a diameter a 50,000th of that of a human hair.

There are more than 600 products containing nanoparticles sold globally, according to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies. Most are food-safety, health and personal-care products. Sunscreen with UV-blocking nano-titanium dioxide leaves no white marks, food-storage boxes lined with a film of nano-silver destroy microbes and face cream packed with nanosomes improves skin moisturizing.

"It's far too early to say whether or not nanoparticles pose a substantial risk to harm the environment," said Klaine.

Researchers around the world are focused on understanding how these particles behave in the environment and how they interact with organisms, including humans. The multi-disciplinary team of investigators from Clemson University, the University of Michigan, Georgia Tech, Wright State University and the University of North Texas represent a comprehensive effort to understand the behavior of carbon nanoparticles in water, how they are taken up by organisms and if they are transferred to the food chain, which ultimately includes humans.

Klaine already has observed interactions between nanoparticles and organisms.

"Carbon nanotubes — CNTs — can get into the gut of the water flea — daphnia — and become part of the organism. How the uptake affects the organism and the food chain — fathead minnows feed on daphnia — is one of the questions that needs to be answered."

"We are dealing with a new technology and we must continue to explore its potential for unintended consequences until we have the information to adequately characterize the risk to the environment and humans," said Klaine. "As scientists we have an obligation to inform the public of potential safety concerns as well as the potential for better products."

About Clemson University

Today, Clemson is redefining the term “top-tier research university” by combining the best of two models: the scientific and technological horsepower of a major research university and the highly engaged academic and social environment of a small college. With a distinctive governance system that fosters stability in leadership, unique college structures that create an unmatched climate for collaboration, and a driven, competitive spirit that encourages faculty, staff and students to embrace bold, sometimes audacious, goals, Clemson has set its sights on being one of the nation’s top-20 public universities by 2011.

EU Study Tackles Nanotoxicology Dilemma

How nanoparticle toxicity (i.e. nanotoxicology) affects the health and environment of Europeans is a concern that many researchers are currently investigating. Rising to the challenge is the NHECD ('Nano health-environment commented database') project, funded under the EU's Seventh Framework Program (FP7) to the tune of EUR 1.45 million. The project partners are seeking to create a critical and commented database on the health, safety and environmental impact of nanoparticles. The project coordinator is Professor Oded Maimon from Tel Aviv University with participants from JRC (Italy), IVAM (Netherlands) and tp21 (Germany).

Scientific papers and others types of publications including White Papers highlight the need for a methodology that would facilitate the reviewing of all available information, as well as the uncovering of underlying facts through the use of data-mining algorithms and methods. NHECD would make possible the transition from metadata like author names and key words to the information level.

However, most existing electronic knowledge repositories including databases and content management systems are operated manually, which enables only a limited amount of data to be processed. Also, rather unsystematic taxonomy and ontology principles are used to guide the documents' classification and information extraction processes.

The ultimate objective of NHECD is to develop an open access, robust and sustainable system that can meet the challenge of automatically maintaining a rich and up-to-date scientific research repository. This repository would enable a comprehensive analysis of published data on health and environment effects following exposure to nanoparticles, according to the project partners. The repository would also be harmonized to be compatible with existing databases at the metadata level.

What is unique about this database is that various user groups, such as industry and public institutions, will be able to access, locate and retrieve information relevant to their needs, the partners said. The upshot of such a knowledge repository is that public understanding of the impact of nanoparticles on health and the environment will be strengthened. Moreover, it will support the safe and responsible development and use of nanotechnology.

The partners anticipate three key results from NHECD, which started last December and will end in 2012. According to them, the results 'will hopefully facilitate the safe use of engineered nanoparticles'.

One of the outcomes of the project will be the creation of a novel layer of information for every paper analyzed by the system. 'This layer includes metadata and scientific information extracted from the paper using our mining algorithms, and rating of the paper using specific algorithms,' Abel Browarnik from the Department of Industrial Engineering at Tel Aviv University in Israel told CORDIS News.

'The creation of structured body of knowledge emerging from the raw papers, which are by definition an unstructured body of knowledge, and allowing three communities of users (researchers, regulators and the public at large) to intelligently query the knowledge base created by NHECD' are the other expected results, he added.

While all three groups will benefit from the NHECD results, he continued, 'We believe that researchers will be the most frequent users of our results (as with the papers themselves, mostly accessed by researchers).'

The collaboration between researchers and industry is an important component of the NHECD project. 'Their collaboration is essential for us to help us target the requirements of our future audience,' said Mr. Browarnik.

While the partners are optimistic about the results, they are also aware of the potential challenges they face. 'The challenges we foresee are the automatic population of the repository, information extraction, keeping the repository up to date, updating the taxonomies used by NHECD, paper rating and intelligent retrieval,' Mr. Browarnik said.

Will NHECD drive similar research now and in the future? Project coordinator Professor Maimon says it will. 'We believe that our work will stimulate further research in this area by enabling a clear view of the field and allowing us to understand the effects of nanoparticles,' Professor Maimon told CORDIS News.

NASA Cleanroom Creates Next Mars Rover

At NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Spacecraft Assembly Facility in Pasadena, CA, researchers are hard at work designing and building the next generation of Mars rover.

Two models of Curiosity, the newest rover, are being assembled in this cleanroom. The first, an engineering model, will be tested next door in a simulated Mars landscape. The second, the flight model, will live in the cleanroom until it launches in 2011.

Curiosity is the biggest, most powerful rover ever designed. It is nearly twice as long as its predecessors at 10 feet long and weighs nearly a ton. When it reaches Mars, the rover will have a set of instruments to test the surface for signs of past potential habitability.

Completion will take months, and it is expected that modifications will be made along the way as the rover is tested.

Mountbatten Building with Cleanrooms Planned at The University of Southampton

The new Mountbatten Building replaces a previous facility on the same site, which was destroyed by fire in October 2005. The University of Southampton is world renowned for its excellence in the engineering sciences and as a leading research centre for nanotechnology. Jestico + Whiles was appointed to design the replacement building, with CH2M Hill IDC as cleanroom designers and M+E engineers.

The brief of the project was highly technical, comprising very exacting environmental requirements needed for the research activities. At the same time, the University also requested that the new facility should symbolize its forward looking spirit and excellence of its research, with the view to attracting the best international talent in faculty and staff, as well as industry funding.

From an urban planning point of view, there were also onerous constraints. The site is at the north western corner of the Highfield Campus, adjacent to Southampton Common, a site of special scientific interest, but at the same time forming the transition between two worlds, that of academia to the south and quiet residential quarters to the north. Sensitivity was required in dealing with neighbors on all sides, whether it be the natural beauty and wild life of the

Common, the relationship to existing but potentially incongruent university buildings, or the risk of overpowering small scale family homes across the road.

The solution lies in careful manipulation of massing, connections to the adjacent buildings and through circulation, and the use of transparency and reflectivity of materials to modulate views and perceived volumes, and the inclusion of viable and sustainable landscaping features on a very tightly packed site. Planning consent was achieved without any registered objections.

The new £50m structure houses two departments, the School of Electronics and Computer

Science (ECS) and the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), each have their own cleanrooms, laboratories and academic offices. The diverse functional and spatial requirements of the different uses in the building are reflected in the different forms: the technical areas – clean- rooms and labs - form the fully glazed base or ‘plinth’ to the building, whilst offices and other ancillary accommodation are located in the two metal-clad, two story wings above, enclosing a roof garden over the plinth which serves as an oasis, overlooked and enjoyed by all occupants. A separate adjoining structure, the Central Utilities Block, houses the considerable mechanical and electrical equipment required supporting the research activities. A glazed atrium serves as the main entrance to the building; this opens out onto a new entrance square providing south facing outdoor space.

The structure is of reinforced concrete throughout but with special isolations to ensure that the clean rooms are free from vibrations. The cladding is largely curtain walling, aluminum cladding and a perforated ‘veil’, which envelops the Central Utilities Block, unifying the disparate shapes, volumes and openings beneath. A purpose-design chiral fractal pattern, deriving from the work by ECS and ORC at nano scale, and which repeats itself at different scales, has been co-opted as a leitmotif and screen-printed onto the curtain walling around the clean rooms and labs, providing a degree of solar protection and selected obscuration. Simple, dynamic forms with a limited palette of appropriately ‘hi-tech’ materials combine to produce an embodiment of 21st century scientific research in an academic setting.

Although the nature of the building’s uses precludes a totally low-tech, non-mechanical approach to the environmental design, every effort has been made to ensure that all systems are the most sustainable and least energy consuming that can do the job. The offices are entirely naturally ventilated through the use of stack ventilation and open able windows controlled by BMS. Heating and cooling is achieved through the use of under floor piping which alternates between the modes in different seasons, making use of the thermal mass of the concrete slabs and using the University‘s district heating system as source.

The landscaping strategy was also formulated on sustainable principles: connected swales are formed in the ground next to the Common to collect rain water and control drainage into the soil, a brown roof is installed in the roof garden, planted walls are provided to the gas storage block – these all contribute to the biodiversity of the site, in stark contrast to the highly technical interiors of the building.

The cost plan for the building was capped very firmly at the outset by the University and was severely challenged by the complexity of the requirements and the compressed program, which did not always allow for thorough resolution of every element of the design prior to procurement and construction. Nevertheless, the building was designed and completed, substantially to budget and open to use by staff and students less than three years after the fire, thus fulfilling the University’s determination to renew the lost facility with a state of the art replacement and a world class building in the shortest possible time.

Huawei Opens LTE Lab in Tokyo

Long Term Evolution (LTE) gets a big boost forward with the establishment of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd's R&D lab in Japan Otemachi, Tokyo, Japan.

The lab will enable its R&D team in Japan to work with local operators to test LTE systems before delivery. The lab will also serve as an incubator for LTE technologies and as a training facility for the implementation and commercialization of the next-generation wireless technology.

Testing services include peak throughput, latency, multi-users, QoS, handover, element-level management system operation and self-organizing network. The lab's downlink data rate at application layer can reach 140Mbit/s through a single remote radio unit with 20MHz bandwidth. It is also equipped with Huawei's fourth-generation DBS3900 base station and the latest versions of commercial LTE software and test terminals. Facilities include a unified service node and unified gateway, and will enable Huawei to develop evolved packet core solutions for LTE as well as other access networks, and build on its Home Subscriber Server and Application Server solutions, and wireless network management system.

Yan Lida, managing director of Huawei Japan said: "We are very pleased to be able to offer our customers in Japan the latest in LTE testing technology, and at greater convenience, as they partner with Huawei to ready their networks for commercial deployment of LTE solutions. By providing the best environment for innovation and training, we hope that we can contribute to our Japanese customers' R&D efforts in this exciting field, and ultimately, to their continued business success."

Operators and industry partners can now enhance their understanding of LTE and experience the potential of Huawei's latest LTE and System Architecture Evolution solutions through the innovation and technology showcase at the LTE lab in Japan—this was only available in Huawei's headquarters in China previously. The establishment of the LTE lab follows the success of the Huawei UMTS Lab in Tokyo, Japan, which was set up in 2006.

Berkeley Labs Plan Electron Project

Berkeley Lab scientists stunned the world in 2006 when they proved they could accelerate electrons to very high energies (1 GeV, or a billion electron volts) in a distance of centimeters rather than hundreds of meters. Using the same concepts, those scientists plan to take the project to the next level and build a laser-based accelerator capable of zapping electron beams to energies exceeding 10 GeV in a distance of just one meter.

Wim Leemans is the project leader of BELLA, a planned laser plasma accelerator that will receive $20 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

When completed in about four years, the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator, or BELLA, will demonstrate the promise of a novel and compact method of accelerating high-energy particles, by making use of a series of synchronized laser systems. The results will be of interest not only to high-energy particle physicists but also to chemists, biologists, doctors, and national security officials.

BELLA, which will receive $20 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, was the only science project on the list for Berkeley Lab when the Department of Energy announced $115.8 million in Recovery Act funding for the laboratory in March. The rest is allocated for construction and upgrades of office and laboratory space and for building a prototype high-speed data network.

With a total budget of about $28 million, BELLA is expected to generate approximately 50 jobs. That includes both on-site workers, such as laser technicians, engineers and construction teams to upgrade the building that will house the laser, and off-site workers at the companies that will supply the supporting systems. About $7 million will go towards construction and safety; the rest will go towards procuring the laser and everything needed to assemble and run it, such as optical, diagnostic, and other technical systems. The entire system will be housed in an existing building at Berkeley Lab, which will be reconfigured and upgraded to include a clean room, new laser lab space and additional shielding.

Project leader Wim Leemans has spent much of his nearly 18 years at Berkeley Lab building lasers and working with laser accelerators. Collaborating with Simon Hooker of the University of Oxford, he and members of his group achieved a major breakthrough in 2006 when they broke the world record for laser-wakefield acceleration, a technique in which particles are accelerated by waves in plasma generated by intense pulses of laser light. In the wake of the laser pulse, electrons surf the waves of the ionized gas. Leemans and coworkers used this concept to accelerate electron beams to energies of more than 1 GeV in a distance of just 3.3 centimeters. Compare that to the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, or SLAC, which takes 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) to boost electrons to 50 GeV.

Although the main purpose of the project is to develop a new generation of more compact accelerators for high energy physics research, laser plasma wakefield technology has several potential applications. A multi-GeV beam could be used to produce highly-collimated, high-energy photons that could penetrate cargo in a nondestructive way, allowing inspectors to remotely “see” inside a package, which would be highly useful for national security. BELLA could also be used to build free-electron lasers (FEL). Like all lasers, FELs emit energetic beams of light. But unlike conventional lasers, they operate on a different set of principles that make them highly tunable. Because of this property, free-electron lasers can provide extraordinarily valuable tools for materials scientists, chemists, biologists, and researchers in various fields working on problems in fundamental energy research, allowing them to probe ultrashort, nanoscale phenomena. Their tunability also makes them useful for medical diagnosis.

Finally, with some modification, BELLA could produce a narrow bandwidth x-ray beam that could be used to take very high-resolution x-ray images for medical use. If the laser technology that drives the laser plasma accelerators keeps on improving by becoming less expensive and more compact, it could one day be an alternative to conventional x-ray machines, offering a new technique for better images with reduced x-ray dose.

Laser plasma accelerators have the potential to drastically cut the costs of performing accelerator-based scientific experiments due to their much reduced size compared to conventional accelerators of the same energy. While it may be decades before a laser plasma accelerator is built for basic physics research, BELLA represents an essential step towards investigating how more powerful accelerators of the future might be more compact. Systems like BELLA hold the promise of making possible a table-top accelerator with particle energies in the tens of GeV range that could be compact and affordable enough for a wide range of applications.

On the international stage, plasma wakefield accelerator research is highly competitive. Groups in the UK and France are working feverishly to best the record set by Leemans’ group in 2006. China has also deemed it a high-priority growth area. “Everybody’s trying to get to 10 GeV now,” said Leemans. “It’s a big deal. If the project goes according to schedule, we have the best technology to do it first.”

Panasonic Develops Technology for Factories to Halve CO₂ Emissions per Basic Unit

Panasonic Corporation has developed a unique simulation technology that enables each factory to identify suitable power-saving solutions to reduce CO₂ emissions in manufacturing. Adopting this technology, coupled with its employees' efforts in energy conservation, a Panasonic factory has successfully reduced CO₂ emissions per basic unit as much as 46%. Panasonic plans to spread this technology throughout the group to augment its efforts to reduce the environmental impact of its manufacturing.

This simulation technology allows users to evaluate factory processes that use energy-consuming manufacturing or power supply equipment by conducting a simple yet precise test, so that they can accurately calculate efficient operating conditions for the equipment without compromising quality or performance. To be specific, the power-saving simulators evaluate and optimize conditions for using air-conditioning equipment, high pressure air, typically used in clean rooms, and drying/baking furnaces. Then they determine power-saving solutions tailored to each factory.

Up to now, operation of the drying process has relied upon the experience and intuition of engineers. But it was difficult to predict any impact on product quality when manufacturing conditions are altered. Panasonic's new simulation technology has solved this problem. The simulator can find optimal operating conditions for the furnace by predicting not only the drying conditions - based on estimated internal temperatures, humidity and air currents of the furnace that are invisible from outside - but also the final drying quality characteristics.

Operation and maintenance of cleanrooms require a large amount of energy. Once the air conditioners were set, however, it was difficult to change the settings because environmental factors such as airborne dust, temperatures and humidity in the clean room can influence product quality. In addition, analysis by the conventional air-conditioning simulators had poor temperature accuracy of +/- 2 C, meaning they could not accurately assess power saving for clean rooms that require analytical accuracy of under +/- 0.5 C.

Panasonic's new air-conditioning simulation technology adds the analytical boundary conditions separately, making it possible to predict the air currents, temperature, humidity and pressure of the overall factory, including air-conditioning equipment for the clean room and external ventilation, with a high degree of accuracy almost identical to reality. Thus the technology allows for testing various power-saving ideas accurately at the theoretical level to maximize the amount of energy savings.

With regard to high pressure air, usually it is continuously supplied to the equipment used for various processes through a complex system of pipes linked to several compressors in the factory. Panasonic's optimal design simulator can model piping diameter and layout for the entire factory to find an optimal piping layout that minimizes pressure loss. This simulator enables users to review the piping network and operating conditions in the factory, resulting in reductions of energy consumption and CO2 emissions.

By introducing the new energy-saving simulation technology, Panasonic's Energy Company has successfully reduced CO2 emissions at its factory in Wakayama Prefecture in central Japan. The factory, a core of Panasonic's energy business, produces rechargeable lithium-ion batteries for mobile devices. It saw the production doubled in fiscal year 2009 ended in March 2009, compared to the previous fiscal year. Thanks to the new simulation technology and employees' continuing initiatives to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, however, its CO₂ emissions rose only 10% and CO₂ emissions per basic unit were reduced by as much as 46% from the previous fiscal year.

The technological development represents Panasonic's new initiative which involves changes in the power supply equipment and reforms in production process, leading to CO₂ reductions as well as improvement in productivity. Panasonic will expand the use of this power-saving approach to other factories including Energy Company's state-of-the-art battery plant now under construction in Osaka.

GE Building $100M Tech Center in Michigan

General Electric Co. said it will build a $100 million manufacturing technology center in Michigan that will eventually employ about 1,200 workers.

The Advanced Manufacturing and Software Technology Center will include a GE research and development facility with scientists and engineers who will develop manufacturing technologies for GE's renewable energy, aircraft engine, gas turbine and other products.

The center, which is expected to open later this year in Van Buren Township, Mich., also will develop software, networking and other services. Hiring is expected to begin later this year.

GE, which is based in Fairfield, Conn., says it will build a 100,000-square-foot facility to house the manufacturing center. The state of Michigan is providing $74 million in incentives over the next 12 years to support the center, which is expected to yield $146 million in income taxes and other revenue over the same period, Gov. Jennifer Granholm said.

The staff at the Michigan facility will join 2,800 employees at GE's four other research facilities in Munich, Shanghai, Niskayuna, N.Y. and Bangalore, India.

U. of Arkansas Receiving Additional $1.5 million for Nanotechnology Research Center

The University of Arkansas is receiving an additional $1.5 million toward construction of a new Nanotechnology Research Center, thanks to a decision by Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe. Last month the governor released the money from the state's General Improvement Fund.

"Governor Beebe has long been one of the strongest supporters of our nanotechnology research, and this is very concrete evidence of that support," said Chancellor G. David Gearhart. "The governor has the vision to see this as an investment in our state's economy, an investment that will pay dividends in the form of new jobs and new businesses. His support is crucial to our success, and we are very grateful to him."

The University of Arkansas is currently doing preliminary work along Dickson Street to build a utility tunnel to the future site of the building at 747 W. Dickson St. Contractors will begin setting up at the site on July 20, with construction work starting soon after that.

CNano Technology Commissions World's Largest Carbon Nanotube Manufacturing Plant

CNano Technology (CNano) announced at NT09: Tenth International Conference on the Science and Application of Nanotubes, it has successfully scaled up its manufacturing technology to reach the world's largest production capacity of 500 tons per year for multiple wall carbon nanotubes. The carbon nanotube products are already in evaluation with selected customers in several markets that include electronics, automotive and energy storage.

"This manufacturing capability is an important milestone in the drive to meet current and future customer supply demands. The production line validates our technology at a much larger scale while providing a reliable large volume supply source for customers utilizing the unique properties of carbon nanotubes in their products," said Xindi Wu, President and CEO of CNano.

CNano proprietary manufacturing technology enables large scale production at a lower cost structure than other commercial nanotube manufacturing processes. The growing list of commercial applications for carbon nanotubes includes conductive plastics for electronics and automotive, structural composites for sporting goods and aerospace, conductive coatings for displays and aerospace and electrodes for batteries and super capacitors among others.

"CNano has achieved a truly significant milestone. CNano can now bring mass produced nano materials to market at the right price. The company has broken through a barrier that has existed in this market up until now. They have successfully scaled the manufacturing process for making carbon nanotubes. This now makes their unique combination of elevated mechanical properties and low electrical resistivity available at the low cost necessary for adoption in large consumer and industrial markets," said Tom Baruch, founder and managing director of CMEA Capital, who serves as chairman of CNano.

"CNano's management has brought high quality US-style manufacturing into China, tapping the best from both sides of the Pacific Ocean. Through its large scale production of carbon nanotubes, we expect to see more applications that will be feasible that leverage the highly unique properties of this material," said Peter Liu, Chairman of WI Harper.

"This major capacity expansion not only validates CNano's differentiated low cost production capabilities but also now resolves market concerns on price and high volume supply," added Purnesh Seegopaul, Partner at Pangaea Ventures.

CNano platform production technology also facilitates the production of other types of carbon nanotubes. The Company plans to further leverage the 500 ton plant for additional products to be rolled out in the near future.

WITec GmbH Moves HQ to Ulm, Germany

After a construction period of 13 months, WITec GmbH, manufacturer of nano-analytical microscopy systems has moved to its new headquarters building in Ulm. The new building contains customized production facilities, seminar rooms and office space to meet WITec's requirements for developing and producing state of the art microscopy systems. Light filled spaces and open structures dominate the architectural design of the building to create a creative and interactive work environment on 4 floors and more than 20,000 sq. ft. (1,900 sq. meters) To meet the increasing demand for high resolution microscopy solutions, the new building was a necessity in order to secure future growth potential. The driving force behind this successful development is the highly sensitive Confocal Raman Microscope system, which allows the three dimensional imaging of chemical compounds of various materials

New WITec Headquarters Building Opening Ceremony occurred on 19. June 2009

"We are delighted that the completion of the building proceeded so quick" says Dr. Joachim Koenen, Managing Director of WITec. "This investment is a clear commitment to the "Science Park" research and development area in Ulm, as this highly innovative high-tech environment provides ideal growth opportunities for us".

The official opening ceremony for the new headquarters with the mayor of Ulm and the district president as representative of the federal state government occurred on June 19. 2009.

WITec is a manufacturer of high performance optical and scanning probe microscopy systems. A modular product line allows the combination of different microscopy techniques such as Raman, NSOM or AFM in a single instrument for flexible analysis of the optical, chemical and structural properties of a sample. The instruments are distributed worldwide and are used primarily in Materials Science, Life Sciences and Nanotechnology. WITec is based in Ulm, Germany and Maryville, TN, USA.

Minatec to Expand Campus for R&D

At the 11th Leti Annual Review in Grenoble, France, Laurent Malier, CEO of Leti research center, unveiled the project to expand Minatec Campus for integrative industry.

The Building for Integrative Industry (B2I), a 5,000 m2 (53,800 sq. ft.) four-floor building, is expected to open in April 2010, said Malier. It will house an innovative program to share Leti's expertise in micro- and nanotechnologies with traditional small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs).

Through B2I, Leti said it will offer SMEs affordable access to expensive equipment for design, integration or characterization activities and to dedicated collaborative R&D teams to advance relevant innovation processes from feasibility studies to proof of concept and breadboard delivery for prototype manufacturing.

B2I, continued Malier, is a joint initiative from Leti and the Grenoble Institute of Technology (INPG). It will then include students for six-month periods to support the SMEs' projects. This will give them additional training in applying micro- and nanotechnologies and expose them to the variety of business and employment options available at regional SMEs.

Currently, there are 1,200 graduate students on Minatec site, including INPG and University of Joseph Fourier in Grenoble. Leti hosts 150 PhD students and 100 post-docs. Students are of 35 different nationalities.

Minatec was launched in May 2006 in the hope of challenging Belgium's IMEC and Dresden's Silicon Saxony as a major European center dedicated to nanotechnology and electronics innovation.

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