OTHER ELECTRONICS & NANOTECHNOLOGY
UPDATE
December 2011
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF CONTENTS
U of M to Receive Nearly $17 Million from Dow Chemical Company
Electronics at Berkeley Lab Strengthened by New Investment
Royal Engineered Celebrates 30,000-square-foot Addition
Grand Opening of Inteligensa Plant
Octex Lays Foundation for Major Expansion
Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering Facility to Open
Nanomaterials, Nanomedicine Lab Dedicated at UNM
Gateway University Research Park to Open for Nanoscience and Nanoengineering
Avantor Holds Grand Opening for Laboratory in Taiwan
University of Illinois to Start Construction on Engineering Building
The University of Minnesota has finalized an agreement with Dow Chemical Company that will result in the University receiving nearly $17 million over the next five years.
Almost $2.3 million per year over the next five years will go to chemical engineering and materials science, chemistry and mechanical engineering researchers in the University of Minnesota's College of Science and Engineering. Dow also has made a $5 million commitment to help fund a building expansion for Amundson Hall, the home of the highly ranked Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science.
The commitment is part of Dow's recently announced investment of $25 million per year over 10 years at 11 leading U.S. universities to strengthen research in traditional scientific fields important to Dow and to the nation's future. Dow chose the 11 universities for their excellence in science and engineering education, research and willingness to collaborate with industry.
At the University of Minnesota, Dow will fund a variety of research projects focused on developing materials used in photovoltaic devices; polymers that target electronic devices, floor coatings and the delivery of pharmaceuticals; and catalytic compounds that facilitate the transformation of oil and natural gas to feedstock chemicals. Dow will partner with the school's graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and faculty researchers, giving them a chance to work directly with Dow scientists on an ongoing basis. Researchers from Dow and the University meet by telephone each week to discuss the progress of their research and the researchers will meet in person at least four times each year.
"For Minnesota, the donation and research funding are game changers," said Frank Bates, head of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science in the University of Minnesota's College of Science and Engineering.
"This investment is a real change in the way companies invest in research and work with universities. It's about a partnership to meet the needs of both the company and the university while contributing to our society."
In addition to strengthening the university's relationship with industry, the Dow partnership is bringing together researchers from across disciplines within the university.
"At the University of Minnesota we have a uniquely close relationship between chemistry and chemical engineering and materials science that helps bring scientists and engineers together in new ways to solve important problems," said William Tolman, chair of the Department of Chemistry. "This investment from Dow will help strengthen that relationship and drive exciting research forward."
In addition to the University of Minnesota, other universities receiving funding from Dow include the California Institute of Technology, University of California at Santa Barbara, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Georgia Institute of Technology, Pennsylvania State University, University of Wisconsin, Northwestern University, University of California at Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon University and University of Michigan.
As manufacturers pack more and more circuitry into the tiny microchips on which electronic technologies depend, ultraviolet light's narrow wavelengths are essential for creating the densely patterned chips of the future. Leading semiconductor and emerging-technology firms have recently renewed their long collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) to build facilities and instruments for advanced extreme-ultraviolet lithography (EUVL), including microlithography test tools too costly for individual manufacturers.
Since the early 2000s, Berkeley Lab's Center for X-Ray Optics (CXRO) has worked with semiconductor companies to develop the infrastructure needed for world-leading research and development in the field of EUVL, contributing basic research and development essential to the health of the U.S. industry as a whole before individual firms enter competition.
In total funding valued at almost $10 million, Berkeley Lab has recently reinvested $1.5 million in royalties from other licensed technologies to build a new cleanroom and wafer processing facility at Beamline 12 of the Lab's Advanced Light Source (ALS), where CXRO researchers will create the MET5 microfield exposure tool. To build the tool, industry will provide several million dollars plus valuable optics, with additional support to operate the new facility.
The MET5 microlithography tool at the Advanced Light Source's beamline 12.0.1 will be housed in an enclosure inside a new cleanroom with wafer-processing facilities immediately adjacent, built by Berkeley Lab. The MET5 tool, funded by industry, incorporates a state-of-the-art, 8-nanometer optic.
Horst Simon, Berkeley Lab's Deputy Director and one of the world's leading experts in computer technology, demonstrated Berkeley Lab's commitment to maintaining the currency of the Advanced Light Source's services to its valued users by arranging for investment of Lab funds in the new facilities. "This is an excellent example of how the Department of Energy is engaging in innovative collaborations with industry, and how our national labs contribute to maintaining, and indeed increasing, U.S. leadership in a field that has been largely created in this country. We must maintain this type of continued technology investment in order to remain competitive as a nation in today's global economy."
The MET5 microlithography tool uses the extraordinarily bright beams of EUV light produced by the Advanced Light Source to project circuit features, measured in billionths of a meter, onto semiconductor wafers. The exposed patterns on the wafers are a few nanometers in dimension, and will be instantly processed under cleanroom conditions for evaluating the results. In future commercial facilities, larger designs will be stacked one on another at high speeds to produce working circuitry; the test facility is a necessary first step to try out new approaches.
"To insure that tomorrow's technology will be successful," Naulleau says, "we have to develop every aspect of the process in advance."
Royal Engineered Composites recently finished construction on a 30,000-square-foot expansion.
Part of the 30,000-square-foot expansion at Royal Engineered Composites in Minden is a 12,000-square-foot cleanroom. A cleanroom is commonly used in manufacturing to keep dust and chemicals away from products. The new cleanroom is four times the size of the one currently used at Royal.
The company, which was known as Royal Plastics until 2010, recently finished construction on a 30,000-square-foot expansion. The expansion includes a 6,000-square-foot clean room along with additional manufacturing space.
Royal Engineered President Phil Gill said the company has been growing by 15 percent for the last 20 years, and the expansion is a sign of that growth.
“Eventually, we fill up. Then we tend to add 50 percent more than we have, and this time, it’s 30,000 square feet,” he said. “We’re anticipating that we have to grow, so we have to build.”
Gill said the new cleanroom is four times as large as the one the facility currently uses. A clean room is often used in manufacturing to control the level of environmental pollutants, such as chemicals or dust, in an area.
The rooms won’t go into operation until Royal Engineered’s customers approve the new clean room, and Gill said representatives of those companies should arrive next week.
In addition to the expansion, the company bought new equipment, including another ply cutting table and a composite machining center.
Gill said the signs of growth for the company are good for the economy of Minden and surrounding area.
Inteligensa Group member Intelicard has officially inaugurated its new Banking and Smart Card manufacturing plant. The plant is located on the island of Sardinia, Italy, in an industrial park at the city of Iglesias.
The new plant is equipped with the latest generation of machines and systems for producing banking and EMV smart cards, GSM phone cards, prepaid scratch cards, authentication devices such as Inteligensa's i-Pin(TM) Display Card and other high-quality products.
The plant has 140,000 square feet of new construction, including a cleanroom suitable for semiconductor manufacture. It includes a Smart Card personalization bureau and new printing technologies to meet the most demanding requirements of high-quality graphics.
Intelicard, in line with the Inteligensa Group's ecological commitment, has also undertaken a large-scale energy initiative by covering the entire roof area with solar panels, to produce close to 1 Megawatt of electricity from the ample sunshine available in Sardinia.
Octex, is ending the year in a strong position for growth in 2012, with construction of its new facility underway, 23 new employees on board and 2011 sales of $19 million, a 36 percent increase over the previous year.
In September, Octex broke ground on a 26,000-square-foot expansion to its production facility at 901 Sarasota Center Boulevard. The $5.5 million expansion, funded in part by a $200,000 development grant from the Economic Development Corporation of Sarasota County, will increase the company’s production facility to 59,000 square feet in total, and includes a Class 8 cleanroom and quality assurance laboratory. Construction is expected to be completed in March 2012.
“We are experiencing a great deal of demand from new and existing customers,” said Jim Westman, owner of Octex. “The expansion of our facility ensures that we will be able to meet our customers’ needs. BB&T Bank and the Economic Development Corporation of Sarasota County have been extremely valuable partners in bringing this project to fruition.”
The company has hired 23 new employees in the past year, and plans to hire 20 more in 2012, with a total of 80 new hires on board by 2016. DooleyMack Constructors of Sarasota, The Schimberg Group and A&M Engineering are the local contractors providing engineering and construction expertise for the Octex expansion.
Construction of a second research facility is completed at the South Campus of the Gateway University Research Park. The two-story research facility spanning 105,000 sq. ft will accommodate the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering (JSNN), a partnership between The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) and the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NCA&T). Joint School of Nanoscience & Nanoengineering
The JSNN facility, situated at 2907 East Lee Street, will have a cleanroom, three-dimensional visualization suite, extensive labs and a big suite of advanced instruments such as Carl Zeiss SMT Orion Helium Ion microscope.
The official opening ceremony of the JSNN was conducted by Gateway University Research Park and the universities on 7 December 2011.
Gateway University Research Park’s Executive Director, John Merrill stated that the Piedmont Triad region, UNCG and NCA&T has shown its commitment to lead advancements and economic development through the completion of the research facility.
The JSNN’s Founding Dean, Dr. James Ryan commented that the nanoschool is looking forward to working with its partners. The laboratories in the new facility were developed to facilitate the school’s research and education objectives. The JSNN focuses on research fields including computational nanotechnology, nanoenergy, nanobioelectronics, nanomaterials, nanometrology and modeling and nanobioscience. The school offers a Ph.D. in Nanoscience, a Professional Science Master's in Nanoscience, a Master of Science and a Ph.D. in Nanoengineering.
The dedication Aug. 23 of the third floor of the University of New Mexico’s Centennial Engineering Center for a lab combining nanotechnology and nanomedicine offered a start-up charm of its own.
Clustered in a hallway on a floor of green tiles, with lights, pipes and vents visible overhead, about 50 informally dressed students and sports-jacketed faculty looked on as Sandia fellow and UNM professor Jeff Brinker, UNM School of Engineering dean Catalin Roman, UNM Cancer Center director Cheryl Willman and other administrators explained to three New Mexico state representatives, sitting in an adjacent bubble-like room, why the $2 million the state had contributed to the new facility was a good idea.
The lab contains areas to continue work on cancers and low-level pathogens, and to create and analyze new nanomaterials. “For commercial purposes, we have to demonstrate good manufacturing practices that show dosage control, purity, reproducibility and other factors in our protocells,” said UNM post-doctoral student Carlee Ashley, who led development of the nanoscale medicine transporters as part of her doctoral project under Brinker’s tutelage. “And we have to demonstrate removal of toxins that can contaminate our work, before applying to the [Food and Drug Administration] for human trials.”
Sandia National Laboratories is a multiprogram laboratory operated and managed by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness.
Construction recently wrapped up for a second research facility at Gateway University Research Park's South Campus (Gateway) with completion of a 105,000-square-foot building that will house the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering (JSNN). The JSNN is a collaboration between North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NCA&T) and The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). This newest two-story research facility will feature extensive labs, a clean room, a 3-D visualization suite, and a large suite of high-tech tools including a Carl Zeiss SMT® Orion Helium Ion microscope - the only one of its kind in the Southeastern United States.
According to a news release, the new two-story, 105,000 square ft facility will feature extensive labs, a clean room, a 3-D visualization suite and a large suite of high-tech tools including a Carl Zeiss SMT Orion Helium Ion microscope, which is the only one of its kind in the Southeastern United States.
John Merrill, executive director of Gateway University Research Park said, "The completion of this facility underscores the commitment of NCA&T, UNCG, and the Piedmont Triad region to be a leader in innovation and economic development. We anticipate that the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering will become a model for collaborative research."
"The nanoschool is looking forward to moving into the JSNN facility," said Dr. James Ryan, founding dean of the JSNN. "These laboratories were designed to enable our mission of education, research and outreach. We look forward to working with our collaborators."
The JSNN offers a Master of Science in Nanoengineering, a Ph.D. in Nanoengineering, a Professional Science Master's in Nanoscience, and a Ph.D. in Nanoscience. JSNN's research focus areas include: NanoBioscience, NanoMetrology and Modeling, NanoMaterials, NanoBioelectronics, nanoenergy, and computational nanotechnology.
Gateway University Research Park is a joint collaboration between NCA&T and UNCG and serves as a catalyst for university research, innovation and economic development for the scientific research being performed at Greensboro's two high research universities. University officials expect that over the next 10 years, Gateway University Research Park will provide $500 million in economic impact to the region.
Avantor Performance Materials, a global manufacturer of high-performance chemicals, has set up a Taiwan branch in Chupei City, Hsinchu County.
The predecessor of Avantor is Mallinckrodt Chemicals, which was founded in 1867 to manufacture chemicals for the pharmaceutical industry. In 1995, the company was merged with J.T.Baker Chemical Company, which was founded in 1904 to manufacture laboratory chemicals of the highest purity, and renamed as Mallinckrodt Baker. Last year, Mallinckrodt Baker was acquired by an affiliate of New Mountain Capital and later changed its name to Avantor Performance Materials.
At present, Avantor has approximately 1,700 employees worldwide, with several highly respected brand names, including J.T. Baker, Macron, Rankem, Diagnova, and POCH. It has built decades-long relationships with over 10,000 customers. There are eleven global locations, including four manufacturing facilities with certified capabilities
Regarding electronics industry, Avantor has over 25 years of experiences supplying advanced surface treatment solutions for semiconductor manufacturing, solar cell manufacturing, and flat panel display manufacturing.
Avantor's main products include FEOL and BEOL etching, post-etch residue removal, bulk photoresist removal, and FEOL cleaning for semiconductor manufacturing. As for photovoltaic manufacturing, there are pre-emitter and post-emitter surface modification, inline and batch process surface modification. Also, the photoresist removal for flat panel display manufacturing.
The brand new Avantor will complete its offering of performance materials and chemistries through organic growth and acquisitions. In addition to expand manufacturing footprint, the company will also increase R&D spending 3X over historic levels, and adopt SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to implement complete operational solutions.
"Taiwan has two of the world's largest foundries. Processes and tools are here to drive roadmaps and technologies. The answer is very obvious for us to have major investment in Taiwan," said Robert Ferguson, Executive Vice President of Electronic Materials and Northeast Asia, "Also, we can see great opportunity for productive collaboration and technology innovation here."
The new electronics applications laboratory is planned to open by the end of 2011, which will provide applications support to high-volume manufacturing customers, while furthering research and development. It will be used to conduct customer demonstrations, perform process of record (POR) development and support Avantor's global electronics technologies development.
"Our goal is to set up an all-in-one 'virtual fab' to support global customers more quickly with access to advanced 300mm process tools and latest generation metrology tools for customers. It's a unique way in the industry. In this lab, the combination of research and development, applications engineering and small volume manufacturing resources will speed collaboration with customers, leading to faster and more efficient technology development."
The lab will be equipped with full suite of state-of-the-art systems. Customers will be able to use the systems to test chemistries and materials in a Class 100 cleanroom fab environment, rather than disrupting operations by taking their own production equipment off-line for testing purposes.
The $95 million Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Building at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, designed by SmithGroup, is expected to begin construction by the close of 2011.
The new ECE building will create 230,000-square feet of instructional, research, and office space in the heart of the University’s engineering campus. The move will consolidate functions currently dispersed over multiple locations into a single facility, creating a flexible environment to inspire and support interdisciplinary learning and collaboration.
When completed in fall 2014, the project will be a major addition to the university’s Urbana-Champaign campus. The university has received $47.5 million in funding from the state of Illinois, and has secured $37.5 million in private support. Fundraising is ongoing for the remaining $10 million.
The new facility will be constructed on the northern edge of campus adjacent to the circa-1989 Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology and across from the Coordinated Science Laboratory, both SmithGroup-designed facilities. The building program includes classrooms; teaching and research laboratories, including an instructional clean room; an auditorium; faculty and administrative offices; and student gathering areas. It will also house laboratories for research in the fields of thin film and charged particles, optical physics, and electromagnetism; along with varied spaces for the university’s power and energy systems, materials research, remote sensing, and space sciences groups.
The ECE building will also establish a sustainability prototype for future University of Illinois projects. Minimizing the facility’s carbon footprint and optimizing energy efficiency were key drivers behind its design. Sustainable considerations include a terra cotta rainscreen cladding system in conjunction with an R-30 thermal envelope for enhanced energy performance. Passive solar design features such as building orientation, 30 percent overall glazing, and exterior shading devices lend to greater daylighting and reduced energy loads. In addition to maintaining a consistent material palette that harmonizes with the neighboring brick buildings, terra cotta baguettes act as exterior shading devices on 80 percent of the glazing.
The building is targeted to achieve LEED Platinum certification, the highest level of building efficiency, and is anticipated to receive an EPA Energy Star rating of 99 on a 100-point scale.
The ECE Department is also striving to attain a net zero energy design that will enable the building to supply one hundred percent of its energy demands over each year by incorporating renewable energy systems after construction. SmithGroup’s architects and engineers from KJWW have integrated a range of systems that will aid in achieving this goal, including infrastructure for a future array of photovoltaic cells, displacement and demand control ventilation, heat recovery chillers with net metering, and a chilled beam system for cooling and heating the classroom tower.
The building will incorporate many notable contributions of ECE faculty and staff. It will feature the most sophisticated in LED and fluorescent lighting, complex energy conversion systems utilizing advanced power electronics, and intelligent systems and interfaces supported by ever-evolving control and computer technologies.
SmithGroup’s nationally recognized Science & Technology Practice has completed the planning and design of over 18 million square feet of academic, corporate and government research laboratories across the U.S., ranging from small laboratory renovations to large research campuses. Among the firm’s most noteworthy, recently completed projects are the National Renewable Energy Lab's Science & Technology Facility in Golden, Colo., the nation’s first federal project to obtain LEED Platinum status; the University of California at San Francisco’s Ray and Dagmar Dolby Regeneration Medicine Building in San Francisco, Calif.; and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Phoenix, Ariz., a first-of-its-kind facility for the City of Phoenix’s downtown biomedical campus.
SmithGroup is one of the largest architecture and engineering firms in the U.S. and composed of client industry-focused practices serving the education, science & technology, workplace and healthcare markets. SmithGroup ranked #1 for design quality based on design awards won and #2 overall in Architect magazine's 2011 annual best firms ranking. A national leader in sustainable design, SmithGroup has 354 LEED professionals and 67 LEED certified projects.
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