OTHER ELECTRONICS & NANOTECHNOLOGY
INDUSTRY UPDATE
June 2015
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
European
Project Opens Nanoelectronics Infrastructure
Nanotech
Institute Nabs $8.5 Million for 4D Printing Technology
The
Nanofabrication Cleanroom at Rice University
HomePlug
Alliance Opens Certification Lab in China
Government of Canada Strengthens Opportunities Nanotechnology
Iran
Nanotech China Center (INCC) Starts Work in Suzhou Industrial Park
Tyndall National Institute in Ireland, CEA-Leti in France and
imec in Belgium, have entered into a collaborative open-access project called
ASCENT (Access to European Nanoelectronics Network), to mobilize European
research capabilities.
The €4.7 million project will make the unique research
infrastructure of three of Europe's premier research centers available to the
nanoelectronics modelling-and-characterization research community.
ASCENT will share best scientific and technological practices,
form a knowledge-innovation hub, train new researchers in advanced methodologies
and establish a first-class research network of advanced technology designers,
modelers and manufacturers in Europe. The aim is to strengthen Europe's
knowledge in the integral area of nanoelectronics research.
The three partners will provide researchers access to advanced
device data, test chips and characterization equipment.
The partners' respective facilities represent over €2 billion
of combined research infrastructure with credentials in advanced semiconductor
processing, nanofabrication, heterogeneous and 3D integration, electrical
characterization and atomistic and TCAD modelling. This is the first time that
access to these state-of-the-art devices and test structures will become
available anywhere in the world, according to the project partners.
The project will engage industry directly through an 'Industry
Innovation Committee' and will feed back the results of the open research to
device manufacturers, giving them crucial information to improve the next
generation of electronic devices.
Speaking on behalf of project coordinator, Tyndall National
Institute, CEO Kieran Drain said: "We are delighted to coordinate the ASCENT
programme and to be partners with world-leading institutes CEA-Leti and Imec.
Tyndall has a great track record in running successful collaborative open-access
programs, delivering real economic and societal impact. ASCENT has the capacity
to change the paradigm of European research through unprecedented access to
cutting-edge technologies. We are confident that ASCENT will ensure that Europe
remains at the forefront of global nanoelectronics development."
"The ASCENT project is an efficient, strategic way to open the
complementary infrastructure and expertise of Tyndall, Leti and Imec to a broad
range of researchers from Europe's nanoelectronics
modelling-and-characterization sectors," said Leti CEO Marie-Noëlle Semeria.
"Collaborative projects like this, that bring together diverse, dedicated and
talented people, have synergistic affects that benefit everyone involved, while
addressing pressing technological challenges."
"In the frame of the ASCENT project, three of Europe's leading
research institutes - Tyndall, imec and Leti - join forces in supporting the EU
research and academic community, SMEs and industry by providing access to test
structures and electrical data of state-of-the-art semiconductor technologies,"
stated Luc Van den hove, CEO of Imec. "This will enable them to explore exciting
new opportunities in the 'More Moore' as well as the 'More than Moore' domains,
and will allow them to participate and compete effectively on the global stage
for the development of advanced nano-electronics."
This project has received funding from the European Union's
Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 65384
Northwestern University’s International Institute for
Nanotechnology (IIN) has received a five-year, $8.5 million grant from the U.S.
Department of Defense’s competitive Multidisciplinary University Research
Initiative (MURI) program to develop a “4Dimensional printer” — the next
generation of printing technology for the scientific world.
Once developed, the 4D printer, operating on the nanoscale,
will be used to construct new devices for research in chemistry, materials
sciences, and U.S. defense-related areas that could lead to new chemical and
biological sensors, catalysts, microchip designs, and materials designed to
respond to specific materials or signals.
“This research promises to bring transformative advancement to
the development of biosensors, adaptive optics, artificially engineered tissues
and more by utilizing nanotechnology,” says IIN director and chemist Chad A.
Mirkin, who is leading the multi-institution project. Mirkin is the George B.
Rathmann Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.
The award, issued by the Air Force Office of Scientific
Research, supports a team of experts from Northwestern, the University of Miami,
the University of California, San Diego, and the University of Maryland.
In science, “printing” encodes information at specific locations on a material’s
surface, similar to how we print words on paper with ink. The 4Dimensional
printer will consist of
millions of tiny
elastomeric “pens” that can be used individually and independently to create
nanometer-size features composed of hard or soft materials.
The information
encoded can be in the form of materials with a defined set of chemical and
physical properties. The printing speed and resolution determine the amount and
complexity of the information that can be encoded.
Progress in fields
ranging from biology to chemical sensing to computing currently are limited by
the lack of low-cost equipment that can perform high-resolution printing and
3-dimensional patterning on hard materials (e.g., metals and semiconductors) and
soft materials (e.g., organic and biological materials) at nanometer resolution
(approximately 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair).
“Ultimately, the
4D printer will provide a foundation for a new generation of tools to develop
novel architectures, wherein the hard materials that form the functional
components of electronics can be merged with biological or soft materials,” says
Milan Mrksich, a co-principal investigator on the grant.
Mrksich is the
Henry Wade Rogers Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry and Cell and
Molecular Biology, with appointments in the McCormick School of Engineering and
Applied Science, Weinberg and Northwestern University Feinberg School of
Medicine.
“Researchers at
Northwestern’s International Institute for Nanotechnology have a history of
developing the state-of-the-art tools enabling nanotechnology,” says Jay Walsh,
vice president for research at Northwestern. “This new 4D printing effort
represents a wonderful example of a multi-institutional collaboration that
capitalizes on such expertise and couples it with expertise at other
institutions.”
Mirkin invented
and developed one of the first molecular printing techniques: dip-pen
nanolithography (DPN). This technique uses an atomic force microscope and a
sharp tip to deliver small packets of molecules to a surface. The molecules are
designed to react with the surface to form stable single-molecule-thick
structures. In 2012, National Geographic named DPN one of the “100 Scientific
Discoveries That Changed the World.”
The International
Institute for Nanotechnology is an umbrella organization that represents and
unites over $800 million in nanotechnology research, education, and supporting
infrastructure.
Rice University researchers helped usher in the age of
nanotechnology with the discovery of buckyballs at the Houston campus in 1985.
Within 10 years, Rice would be home to one of the world’s first academic
nanotechnology centers, and today more than half of the university’s tenured and
tenure-track faculty in engineering and natural sciences have research interests
related to nanotechnology.
Rice’s nanofabrication
cleanroom houses Class 100 and Class 1,000 (ISO Class 5 and 6) suites, and
opened in 2004. It contains lithography tools, including an EVG 620
Semi-automated Double Side Mask Alignment System, an Oxford Instruments
PlasmaPro 100 ICP180 system, a Cambridge Nanotech Savannah 200 atomic layer
deposition system, thin film evaporators, a Jobin spectroscopic ellipsometer,
and a suite of preparation and characterization tools.
The cleanroom is one part of Rice’s Shared Equipment Authority
(SEA) 1, which operates and maintains experimental instruments that are
available to all Rice researchers. SEA’s mission is to oversee and grow Rice’s
cross-disciplinary research capabilities though the acquisition of new research
equipment and the proper training and education of users. SEA is governed by a
15-member faculty board and a team of dedicated staff and was recognized in
20052 by the National Research Council as a commendable example of
shared-facility management.
Rice’s cleanroom enables interdisciplinary research at the
interface of nanophotonics, 2D and 3D nanomaterials, electro-optical devices,
metamaterials, and microfluidic systems. Specific examples of nanoscale research
include the exploration of novel properties of carbon-based nanomaterials like
graphene and carbon nanotubes, the examination of gold-shell nanoparticles for
plasmonic applications, and the investigation of biosensors for various cancer
markers. An emerging area that is driven by the needs of Houston’s global energy
industry is the development of nanomaterials and devices for conventional energy
recovery.
To access the
cleanroom, new users are required to complete a mandatory orientation program on
cleanroom operation, safety, regulations, training, and protocols. Users also
are required to attend instrument specific training and pass a hands-on test
prior to accessing specific pieces of equipment.
In addition to the
cleanroom, SEA administers Rice facilities for optical and electron microscopy,
mass spectroscopy, and X-ray and nuclear magnetic resonance characterization.
SEA’s newest addition, a double-Cs corrected, monochromated FEI Titan Themis
transmission electron microscope (TEM), is the first of its kind in North
America. It includes capabilities for atomic-resolution imaging and elemental
analysis as well as electron energy loss spectroscopy and electron holography.
The TEM is accompanied by a new, dualbeam focused ion beam system capable of
nanometer-resolution patterning and SEM imaging.
SEA serves more than 500 faculty, postdoctoral, and student
users involved in condensed matter physics, bioengineering, atomic and molecular
physics, biomolecular engineering, optics, materials science, physical
chemistry, inorganic chemistry, environmental science, soft condensed matter
physics, and other disciplines. SEA equipment also serves more than 100
off-campus users from industry and from partner institutions in Houston’s Texas
Medical Center, a 42-member complex that boasts more than seven million
patient visits per
year.
The HomePlug Alliance, the global industry group for powerline
communications networking, has announced that China Academy of Information and
Communications Technology (CAICT), formerly CATR, is now accepting submissions
for HomePlug AV and AV2 product certification.
"We launched HomePlug AV2 Certification earlier this year at
CES, and are happy to be extending the reach of that program, as well as the
HomePlug AV program, by opening a test house in China," said Rob Ranck, HomePlug
Alliance president. "Our engagement with CAICT has proven very positive, and we
look forward to continuing work with them as HomePlug's traction in China and
the rest of Asia continues to grow."
"Interest among OEMs in Asia for HomePlug Certification has
been on the rise as sales continue to increase and the technology continues to
advance with, for example, HomePlug AV2 with MIMO," said Songdong LV, CAICT
manager of certification laboratory. "Through our partnership with HomePlug
Alliance, we are removing a geographical barrier and expect volumes of HomePlug
Certified products to surge."
CAICT is also an official test laboratory for the nVoy
certification program. The nVoy certification programme applies to products
implementing the IEEE 1905.1 hybrid home networking standard for HomePlug, WiFi,
MoCA and Ethernet networking technologies.
The Honorable Michelle Rempel, Minister of State for Western
Economic Diversification, announced $1.5 million in funding to support the
Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) in establishing a center that
will allow small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to test, develop, and
commercialize micro- and nano-coated products.
Federal funding will enable NAIT to purchase specialized
coating handling and blasting equipment, a spray booth, cutting machines,
compressors, and to upgrade the facility's ventilation system and power supply.
The facility, which is also receiving support from MesoCoat
Technology Canada, will operate within the existing Nanotechnology Centre for
Applied Research, Industry Training and Services (nanoCARTS), and is expected to
benefit a wide range of sectors including oil and gas, surface technology and
engineering.
Since 2006, the federal government has invested more than $13
billion in new funding in all facets of the innovation ecosystem including
advanced research, research infrastructure, talent development, and business
innovation.
NAIT's nanoCARTS provides industry with prototyping, product
enhancement, testing and characterization services related to nano and micro
technology. The new facility will help to expand nanoCARTS' range of services
available to SMEs.
NAIT has the expertise in rapid prototyping, materials
testing, manufacturing, training and mechanical design to help companies develop
and commercialize new products.
"Our Government understands that technology advancements help
increase Western Canada's competitive advantage. By investing in the
establishment of this new micro- and nano-coated product development center, we
are demonstrating our commitment to supporting jobs and economic growth," said
The Honorable Michelle Rempel, Minister of State for Western Economic
Diversification
"Applied research is essential in NAIT's role as a leading
polytechnic. This investment strengthens our ability to work with industry to
solve their real-world problems. This ultimately helps them to be competitive
and innovative. I would like to thank the Government of Canada for its
investment."
Iran Nanotech China Center (INCC) opened on 12 May 2015 in the
presence of Iranian and Chinese authorities in Nanopolis Center located in
Suzhou Industrial Park.
In this ceremony, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was
signed between Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council (INIC) and Nanopolis
Center, aiming at development of cooperation between Iran and China in the field
of nanotechnology.
Ali Morteza Birang, the head of the scientific and
technological department of presidential office for international affairs,
delivered a short speech in the ceremony and stated that opening of this center
is the beginning of international cooperation between the two countries in the
field of nanotechnology. The deputy head of Suzhou Industrial Park for science
and technology, for his part, pointed to the fact that Suzhou has connected
China to Iran as the beginning of the Silk Road in the past. According to him,
the opening of this center in Suzhou creates a new path of nanotechnology
between the two countries.
Also, Secretary of Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council
(INIC) Dr. Sa'eed Sarkar believes that there is an ideal opportunity for
cooperation between the INIC and the Nanopolis Center. The Head of Nanopolis
Center also expressed the hope that setting up the center would result in the
development of cooperation between the two countries and the presence of Iranian
companies in Nanopolis Center.
It must be pointed out that the three countries of Finland,
the Netherlands and Czech Republic have established international centers in
Suzhou Industrial Park. Iran is the fourth country to establish an office in
this center to have international cooperation.
Iran Nanotech China Center started its activity in the city of
Suzhou in March 2015.
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