OTHER ELECTRONICS AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
UPDATE
September 2010
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Universal Electronics, Inc. Opens New Manufacturing Facility
Engineering Firm Expands in Burnsville, MN
SUNYIT Groundbreaking in October
Tartu Science Park Brings Nanotechnology to Estonia
Cuba to Open Nanotechnology Center
INL Selects Vistec's System for Nanotechnology
Notre Dame to Dedicate New Engineering Building
Russia to Prepare for Nanotech Society
Hudson Valley Community College Gets Funding from National Science Foundation
Citrix's R&D Centre to Rise in India
Electronics contract manufacturer Universal Electronics, Inc. (UEI) is pleased to announce the opening of its newest facility in East Troy, Wisconsin. The East Troy plant, known as UEI II, replaces the company's former Mukwonago, Wisconsin facility and complements its main plant in Whitewater, Wisconsin.
"We're very excited to open this 27,500 square foot facility delivering modern, ISO 9001-approved electronics manufacturing," said Marc Haag, general manager of the new plant. "The larger space and addition of new advanced equipment enables us to effectively service our current clients and easily accommodate future growth."
UEI II offers rapid prototyping, experienced program management, and quick integration for volume manufacturing. By offering a flexible engagement model, the East Troy plant offers customized programs for low-to-mid volume printed circuit boards and full box-build assemblies, as well as providing the physical resources and robust supply chain to support large-scale box assemblies.
The new plant serves a variety of industries including industrial, telecom, lighting, and laboratory, and its capabilities include high-speed automated SMT lines, automated axial, dip, and radial insertion, complete box build, and RoHS compliant assembly. Universal Electronics, Inc. provides almost 300 jobs in East Troy and the surrounding communities.
Gerbig Engineering says its new headquarters at 1198 E. Cliff Road in Burnsville will provide 3,000 additional square feet of space for the company, which designs, fabricates and installs modular cleanrooms.
The company completed its move last month. The space was remodeled to accommodate a laboratory for clean room environmental monitoring and a cleanroom product testing lab, as well as office, warehouse and production areas.
In a news release, officials said the move will allow the company to streamline production and carry a larger stock of products, including clean-room construction components such as aluminum structural framework profiles and wall panels.
Owner Fred Gerbig said the company moved from a smaller space in the same industrial building.
The move was “strictly to get more space,” Gerbig said in a phone interview: “Our office space was very cramped and production was very cramped.”
Gerbig said the company, which also has an office in North Branch, has been in business for 26 years and has 16 employees.
The company is working on projects in South Dakota, Alabama and Mexico, among other locations. It counts firms such as 3M, Medtronic, and Boston Scientific among its clients.
“It’s all high tech,” Gerbig said. “We don’t deal with anybody that is not involved in the high-tech business. … People that supply into the medical-device industry and people that supply into the semiconductor industry are a big customer base for us.”
Modular clean rooms are a big part of the company’s business, he said.
The firm also certifies and validates work for companies that supply into FDA-regulated industries and designs and manufactures pass-through units, clean workstations, soft-wall clean- rooms and constant temperature rooms.
SUNYIT will be breaking ground next month on two new buildings associated with bringing nanotech to the area — one of which will include a state-of-the-art cleanroom.
“This is the start of the development that we’ve been talking about for a couple of years (and) some people have been talking about for decades,” SUNYIT President Bjong Wolf Yeigh said. “This is the beginning of the dream this area has had.”
The groundbreaking will take place on Sunday, Oct. 24, on the Computer Chip Commercialization Center with its cleanroom and a Center for Advanced Technology that will be located near Kunsela Hall.
SUNY and state leaders announced in July 2009 that a nanotechnology partnership between SUNYIT and the University at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering would create as many as 475 contractor and supplier jobs in the Mohawk Valley. The announcement also included plans for the $17.5 million Computer Chip Commercialization Center and research and development.
“This is the second step in the realization of plans and dreams about nanoscience and engineering in this area,” Yeigh said. “There will be many more, and I hope that those who didn’t believe this was possible will see that there is something substantial happening here.”
The new Computer Chip Commercialization Center still is under design, and its size will depend on the demand of its industry tenants, SUNYIT officials said.
Yeigh said he expects it to be as large as 120,000 square feet, including the 20,000-square-foot cleanroom.
When it is completed in 2012, it will house infrastructure, a technology company headquartered in Clifton Park that last month announced a partnership with SUNYIT in which officials said will bring 175 jobs to the area.
Yeigh said he expects many more companies to sign on to leasing space as construction begins.
The Center for Advanced Technology -- referred to as the CAT – will be an estimated 80,000 square feet and will house engineering, computer science and other technology programs at the college, Yeigh said.
Funding for the $27.5 million three-story structure will be provided by the state.
In total, more than $65 million has been dedicated to the nanotechnology efforts at SUNYIT in hopes of attracting a company to the Marcy NanoCenter site.
The world is becoming increasingly strange because people are willing to pay money for things which are made more durable, fire-proof, lighter, or more attractive by particles which cannot be distinguished by the naked eye. Nanotechnology, shortened to ‘nanotech,’ is known as the study of the controlling of matter on the atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with structures sized between 1 to 100 nanometers in at least one dimension, and involve developing materials or devices within that size.
Nanotechnology is very diverse, ranging from extensions of conventional device physics to completely new approaches based upon molecular self-assembly, from developing new materials with dimensions on the ‘nano’ scale to investigating whether we can directly control matter at the atomic scale.
There has been much debate on the future implications of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology may be able to create many new materials and devices with a vast range of applications, such as in medicine, electronics, biomaterials and energy production. On the other hand, nanotechnology raises many of the same issues as with any introduction of new technology, including concerns about the toxicity and environmental impact of nanomaterials, and their potential effects on global economics, as well as speculation about various doomsday scenarios.
The development of nanotechnology in the past decade has been impressive. In recent years, the benefits of nanotechnology in the world economy have increased by at least a third per year. Unfortunately, Estonian entrepreneurs have not gained much from the triumph of the technology. Although Estonians have universities, scientists, and equipment and apparatus at their disposal, which allows the human eye to enter the wonderful and mysterious world of nanoparticles, Estonia still has no nano-laboratory where an entrepreneur could go and let his idea earn money, with the help of scientists and equipment.
If everything goes as planned at Tartu Science Park, next spring will see the opening of a third semi-industrial laboratory which, according to its plan, is first and foremost meant for entrepreneurs who wish to obtain advice from scientists in terms of product development concerning nanotechnology.
The head of the Estonian Nanotechnologies Development Center and advisor to the establishment of the Nanolab to be built at Tartu Science Park, Ilmar Kink, says that so far the Baltics lack one fixed center where entrepreneurs could obtain assistance and advice in the field of nanotechnology. Therefore, at least for now, the Nanolab established in Tartu will also be of assistance for entrepreneurs from Latvia and Lithuania.
Kink says that nowadays scientists are the people on whose time and desire it depends if the wish of Estonian entrepreneurs to contribute to product development related to nanotechnologies will be realized or not. “Universities do everything within their capacities to assist entrepreneurs, but they have their limits because the scientists also need to study, in addition to do their research,” says Kink. “The more there are such centers where scientists can deal with only assisting entrepreneurs, the more we move towards a knowledge-based economy.”
Several groups of scientists are involved in nanotechnological research at Tallinn University of Technology, KBFI, and University of Tartu. These are mostly enthusiastic researchers who are focused on narrow areas of studies, as there is no general and extensive knowledge center in the area of nanotechnology in Estonia. Therefore, an entrepreneur needs to be a sort of a palmist and guess from all the scientists the one who could and would be able to help him.
“The main idea of the Nanolab is to establish a special building with all the necessary equipment and clean rooms for performing tests,” explains Kink. Estonian scientists are pretty well equipped. However, they mostly lack cleanrooms, which is the major bottleneck for the developments related to nanotechnology for Estonian companies.
“From the point of view of nanotechnology, it is very important that all the tests are performed in controlled conditions which could be offered by the clean rooms, where there is no dust,” adds Kink. “The nanostructures are of the same measurements as a small speck of dust; as such, it is rather complicated to tell the difference.”
He says that Estonian scientists currently analyze small structures in test tubes and laboratories rather successfully, but at one point the technologies need to be brought to a larger scale. For example, at the Estonian nanotechnologies development center there is an ongoing project for developing electro-optical glass. However, it is rather difficult to bring to the production phase under the current conditions because Estonia lacks cleanroom space where large-scale test objects could be prepared. The glass in the development phase could turn out to be a rather popular sales article in the future. In offices, for example, it would allow for regulation of the transparency of glass surfaces, as required.
The Science Park has worked on the Nanolab project since 2006. Last year, the construction project was completed. To date, the public procurement for construction has been carried out and a 50 percent support decision has been received from Enterprise Estonia for test and semi-industrial laboratories.
The central part of the 1,000 square meter (10,760 sq. ft.) Nanolab will be the 430 square meter (4,627 sq. ft.) complex of cleanrooms, which consists of seven cleanrooms and a service area. As far as is known, this is more than in all the research institutions of Estonia put together. For example, the chemistry building of the University of Tartu has two rather small cleanrooms. Some of the pharmaceutical companies operating in Estonia also have some cleanrooms, but they are mostly meant for use within the company. Furthermore, the biologists at the University of Tartu have a cleanroom, but this is not suitable for physicists. The problem lies in the fact that while the cleanrooms used by physicists are under super pressure, the ones used by biologists are under negative air pressure. “If we want nothing to enter a clean room, then they want that nothing would leave the cleanroom,” explained Kink.
The Science Park began developing the Nanolab idea due to the interest of several technology companies, including Clifton, a developer of semiconductors, and Evikon MCI, a manufacturer of gas sensors.
Regardless of the permanent residents, the Nanolab is to be established in Tartu, and it should offer the possibility of contracting out development work by any entrepreneur. Nowadays, nanotechnology is, among other things, used in manufacturing frames for bicycles, the cosmetics industry, and car manufacturing. According to Kink, the scientists have recently been contacted by many entrepreneurs who import chemical products with nanotechnological additives, such as car wash products.
Due to the fact that in order to import chemical products one has to know rather precisely what they contain, the scientists are sought for help in order to establish the components of the product. At the same time, studying the components of a random car wash liquid is not a very promising endeavor, in terms of science. And although in the case of some products that contain nanoparticles, measuring the components is a standard activity, at present Estonian scientists simply do not have time to do such measuring work. However, in the future, it will be possible to carry out the standardized measuring of nanoparticles.
So, who else would have business at the future Nanolab? Tartu alone has many clothing manufacturers, such as Ilves Extra, or perhaps the plastics manufacturer Estiko Plastar, whose products can be made more durable if nanoparticles would be added to the fabric structures. The Estonian nanotechnologies development center is already performing research which would allow Estiko to add nanotubes to the film used for manufacturing plastic bags, thereby increasing the load capacity of plastic bags by several kilograms. “The current results are already very impressive,” assures Kink.
However, product development is impossible if equipment and scientists are not at the disposal of the entrepreneurs. The new nanolaboratory will also have modern fixtures in the form of research equipment. If the equipment can be brought in and rented, then things are more complicated with “equipping” the laboratory with scientists. In this respect, the Nanolab is co-operating with universities and existing institutes, but if entrepreneurs so wish, scientists can be brought in from abroad as well. Of course, entrepreneurs have to pay for such services.
“After a short training, the Nanolab can also be used by the scientists hired by the entrepreneurs, but scientists and researchers can also be rented from Nanolab,” says Kink. However, the Nanolab is not planning to make the permanent staff too large. The problem with nanotechnology is that the circle of problems in this research area is very extensive and specific, and therefore a flexible approach to labor is the most efficient and rational solution.
According to Toomas Noorem, director of the Tartu Science Park, funds for the building of the Nanolab have been received from Enterprise Estonia and there are ongoing negotiations with banks for obtaining further financing. “If everything goes as planned, the cornerstone should be laid in place already sometime around midsummer,” added Noorem. “The cost of construction, together with the equipment of the clean room, will amount to 27 million kroons (1.7 million euros) of the cost of the Nanolab, and the rest of the funds will be used for acquisition of the research equipment.
This will be the third semi-industrial laboratory of the Tartu Industrial Park. The park already has Protolab and Energylab, or regional energy agency.
Tartu Science Park was founded in 1992 as the first of its kind in the Baltic States. In 1996, the form of ownership of the Science Park was changed and the city and county of Tartu, University of Tartu, Estonian University of Life Sciences, and Institute of Physics of the University of Tartu founded the foundation Tartu Science Park, which operates today. The aim of the activities of the Science Park, as the support structure for innovation, is to support the creation, development, and activities of research and technology companies by offering infrastructure and business development services in the region of Tartu and throughout south Estonia.
Cuba is to open a nanotechnology center for Latin American scientists, nuclear physicist Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart said.
The facility, known as "Center for Advanced Studies" (CAEC), would be the top national institution focusing on the nanotechnology researches in Latin America, he told a hi-tech meeting.
Cuba is ready to operate the first stage of the CAEC at the end of this year, said Diaz-Balart, the eldest son of former top Cuban leader Fidel Castro who also serves as the scientific advisor for the Council of State.
He said Cuba spends 1.21 percent of its GDP in scientific research, but "it isn't for fame but for the people's welfare."
"We have 53 centers for biomedicine studies, with 3,000 scientists working on new medicines development," he added.
The meeting, of the Third International Seminar on Nanoscience and Technology, has drawn over 70 scientists worldwide and two winners of the Nobel Prize.
Vistec Lithography, a leading supplier of advanced electron-beam lithography systems has announced that the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) in Braga, Portugal has placed an order for Vistec's electron-beam lithography system EBPG5200 . The Portuguese Laboratory is the first fully international research organization in Europe in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology.
The INL, which was established by Portugal and Spain some years ago, has now moved into the equipping phase of its new research facility, where the lithography equipment will play an important role. With the Vistec EBPG5200 series and its unique and flexible nanoscale patterning capabilities, the INL has acquired one of the most advanced electron-beam lithography systems for nanotechnology research and development. Furthermore, this will be the first installation of an EBPG5200 system at the Iberian Peninsula.
Thanks to further enhancements in resolution, noise reduction and beam stability, the Vistec EBPG5200 is set to generate structures to less than 8nm on varying substrates sizes from piece parts of a few millimeters to full patterning across a 200mm diameter.
However, what makes Vistec's electron beam lithography of superior standards so unique and actually possible, is the perfect match of the various system components such as the electron-optical column, the hardware platform, the data processor and the exposure engine working together in a flexible and user friendly system.
The system incorporates an interactive graphical user interface (GUI) that provides ease of use for diverse "multi user environments".
"Nanotechnology has the potential to profoundly impact our future life in all aspects. The EBPG5200 opens up the opportunity to maintain highest flexibility and to keep our research activities on track with the challenging requirements of the future", said Prof. Paulo Freitas, Deputy Director General at INL.
International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL)INL is an international research organization in the field of nanosciences and nanotechnology, building a major research effort in the area of nanomedicine (nanotechnology applied to the medical area), and applications of nanotechnology to food and environment quality control. These activities will be supported by transversal research in nanoelectronics and single molecule based devices. INL is presently equipping its central laboratory facilities and is recruiting research personnel worldwide.
Vistec Electron Beam Lithography GroupThe Vistec Electron Beam Lithography Group is a global manufacturer and supplier of electron-beam lithography systems with applications ranging from nano and bio-technology to photonics and industrial environments like mask making or direct writing for fast prototype development and design evaluation. The Vistec Electron Beam Lithography Group combines Vistec Lithography and Vistec Electron Beam.
Vistec LithographyVistec Lithography develops, manufactures, and sells electron-beam lithography equipment based on Gaussian Beam technology. Their electron-beam systems are world-wide accepted in advanced research laboratories and universities.
Nanosys, Inc., an advanced materials architect, announced the opening of a new subsidiary, Nanosys Korea, Inc. with facilities in Gyeonggi-do, Korea. The company named former LG Electronics vice president Dr. Jong-Uk Bu as president of Nanosys Korea, Inc., which will support its growing Korean and Asian customer base.
This year, Nanosys commercialized its quantum dot technology with the QuantumRail (TM), a process-ready component that improves LED backlit display color gamut and efficiency, and has announced partnerships with LG Innotek and Samsung Electronics. The company is currently working with major battery manufacturers to improve lithium-ion battery capacity using its SiNANOde (TM), a silicon composite material that can increase battery cell capacity by up to 40 percent. SiNANOde (TM)-enhanced batteries will be available to consumers in 2011.
"Samsung Electronics and LG Innotek have demonstrated the visionary nature of the Korean electronics industry by adopting new architected material solutions that deliver exponential performance results," said Jason Hartlove, CEO of Nanosys. "Nanosys Korea will allow us to meet our customers' needs for architected materials and to expand our presence in Asia."
Dr. Bu, who will lead the facility located in the provincial capital city of Suwon, brings a breadth of knowledge and experience in the display and microelectronics fields.
A new era in engineering research at the University of Notre Dame was officially marked with the dedication of Stinson-Remick Hall, a 142,000-square-foot facility that houses a nanotechnology research center, an 9,000-square-foot semiconductor processing and device fabrication cleanroom, and an undergraduate interdisciplinary learning center.
The building also houses Holy Cross Chapel, believed to be the only chapel inside a university engineering building in the country.
The new building is called Stinson-Remick Hall in honor of principal benefactors Kenneth and Ann Stinson and Jack and Mary Ann Remick. Stinson is a 1964 Notre Dame graduate and a member of the Board of Trustees. Jack Remick, a 1959 graduate, is a member of the University's advisory council for the College of Engineering and a gift from Mary Ann Remick created an endowment for visiting fellows at Notre Dame's Center for Ethics and Culture.
The learning center is named in honor of major benefactors Ted and Tracy McCourtney. A 1960 Notre Dame graduate, Ted McCourtney is an emeritus member of the Board of Trustees.
Researchers in Notre Dame's Center for Nano Science and Technology explore new device concepts and associated architectures that are enabled by novel phenomena on the nanometer scale. Established in 1999, the center is under the direction of Wolfgang Porod, and Frank M. Freimann, Professor of Electrical Engineering.
The Notre Dame Energy Center was created in 2005 under the direction of Joan Brennecke, Keating-Crawford Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Faculty members associated with the center are seeking to develop new energy technologies, based on carbon dioxide sequestration in ionic liquids, new materials for nuclear energy utilization and related energy efficiency research to meet a compelling national and international challenge.
A major energy research program located in the building is a federal Energy Frontier Research Center led by Peter Burns and funded with an $18.5-million U.S. Department of Energy grant. Research at the center seeks to understand and control materials that contain actinides at the nanoscale. The research is intended to lay the scientific foundation for advanced nuclear energy systems that may provide much more energy while creating less nuclear waste.
Another initiative housed in Stinson-Remick is the Midwest Institute for Nanoelectronics Discovery (MIND), a consortium of academic, industry and government partners led by Notre Dame which explores and develops advanced devices, circuits and nanosystems with performance capabilities beyond conventional devices.
The interdisciplinary learning center is four times the size of its former location in Cushing Hall. The center provides undergraduate students with a blend of computer work stations, library resources and laboratory space.
The semiconductor processing and device fabrication cleanroom will be the first such facility at Notre Dame.
Stinson-Remick also is home to Notre Dame's Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics initiative (AD&T), an interdisciplinary research initiative focused on developing diagnostic and therapeutic technologies at the smallest molecular scales to address a diverse set of health and environmental challenges.
Also housed in Stinson-Remick is the Notre Dame Nanofabrication Facility (NDNF), which features comprehensive facilities for developing nano- and microelectronic materials and devices. NDNF serves approximately 150 researchers across the University each year as well as faculty from many others universities and research facilities across the country.
The new building also houses the Notre Dame Integrated Imaging Facility, which serves the science and engineering research communities by integrating three areas of the University's imaging expertise: electron microscopy, optical microscopy and in vivo imaging.
The Russian state plans to open a set of hi-tech schools across the country, bringing nano-education to the masses.
The Rosnano state corporation is to allocate 28 million rubles (about $1 million) for the ambitious project, RBK daily newspaper reported.
The idea is to create the league of modern schools which will prepare students for living in the approaching nanotech environment. Rosnano believes that the existing system of education in sciences, including schools, cannot provide enough highly-qualified specialists in nanotechnologies.
The State University of New York's Hudson Valley Community College issued the following news release: Hudson Valley Community College will receive almost $3 million over the next four years to help educate and drive interest in the nanotechnology and semiconductor manufacturing industry in the Northeast.
The funding, which comes from the National Science Foundation, will create the Regional Center for Semiconductor and Nanotechnology Education (RCSNE) that supports a range of initiatives to educate and motivate students toward careers in those growing industries. Hudson Valley Community College has a two-year semiconductor manufacturing associate degree and has actively been collaborating with other educational institutions and industry since the program was created in 2005.
The highly competitive NSF grant, which is about $750,000 each year, will support an array of efforts, including promoting semiconductor and nanotechnology-related programs at other community colleges and four-year institutions; internship-based training and workshops; and the coordination of student recruitment for those programs. In addition, the RCSNE will develop pipeline programs that will promote careers in the industry to students in grades K through 12. Funding also will go towards researching and meeting workforce needs of the industries.
Partners in the grant include General Electric, Global Foundries, IBM, Tokyo Electron and SEMATECH. The college also will team with The University at Albany, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, SUNY IT and a range of community colleges across New York, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut to spread the word about career opportunities and facilitate training in these industries.
The ongoing construction of the Global Foundries chip fabrication plant in Malta, IBM's commitment to site an Advanced Integrated Circuit Packaging Research and Development Center in upstate New York and General Electric's plan to build an advanced battery manufacturing center in the Capital Region underscore the fact that this is a career field expected to growth both locally and nationally.
It's expected that the Global Foundries facility in Malta alone will create 1,465 permanent manufacturing jobs by the end of 2012.
"We are honored to be a catalyst in helping drive a new wave of careers in upstate New York," said President Andrew J. Matonak. "This was a highly competitive grant process and we are pleased that the National Science Foundation understood our ability make high tech training happen here in the Capital Region and across the Northeast." TNS sm92 100828-sm92-2976441 71SibanaM (c) 2010 Targeted News Service
Citrix Systems Inc. has strategic expansion plans in place for India. These include moving its research and development (R&D) team to a new facility in Bangalore, second in size only to that of the U.S. R&D organization, as well as expanding its sales team and opening a new sales office in Mumbai for them.
The new R&D centre was opened at the hands of Citrix CEO Mark Templeton who detailed the company's expansion plans for India. The new facility will handle all aspects of research including design, coding, functional testing, engineering, management. As a result, Citrix can better partner and interact with its customers as early as the product development stage, in order to provide them with the best solution to meet their business needs.
"India has some of the best information technology talent in the world and the expansion of our R&D team here ensures we can take best advantage of this highly regarded expertise," said Templeton.
Citrix has five R&D centers worldwide, with other facilities in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan.
Rakesh Singh, VP and managing director for Bangalore Research and Development said the local team was responsible for the development of key products for Citrix and that they were extremely proud of the leading edge products that were conceived, developed and ultimately brought to market due to Indian know-how.
Sanjay Deshmukh, area VP, India Subcontinent at Citrix, said: "As a rapidly growing market, India holds immense potential for our company and we are proud that we can meet the demands of this dynamic, expanding market with a strengthen sales and R&D team."
Finland's University of Oulu says it will establish a research laboratory with financing and expertise from the chip giant Intel Corp. and cell phone maker Nokia Corp.
The university said that the lab will initially include about two dozen researchers working on mobile Internet technology.
The first project involves using 3-D technology for mobile phone displays. "3D technology could change the way we use our mobile devices and make our experiences with them much more immersive," Nokia Chief Technical Officer Rich Green said in a statement.
Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology, is providing extra financing.
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