Start-Up Wins Army Contract to Ramp Nanotube Production Boston, Mass.-NanoLab, a nanotech start-up, has been awarded $750,000 in SBIR Phase II contract funding from the U.S. Army to ramp up production of multiwalled carbon nanotubes. The company expects to soon be able to produce one kilogram/day. NanoLabs develops products based on bulk and aligned carbon nanotubes-hollow crystals of carbon, less than 50 nm in diameter. Nanotubes are stronger than steel and more electrically conductive than copper. Aligned carbon nanotube arrays can be employed to create chemical sensors, nanotweezers and field emission products such as FPDs. Designs using nanotube arrays can also be used to reduce the cost of optical components such as fiber-optic signal demultiplexing devices. Nanotubes are produced using a chemical vapor deposition (CVD), where growth is accomplished by exposing a carbon-containing gas to a catalyst. By patterning a catalyst film on a suitable substrate, patterned nanotube arrays can be grown. [nano-lab.com] Vishay Completes Acquisition of Infineon's Malaysian Plant Malvern, Pa.-Vishay Intertechnology Inc., has assumed full ownership of the Krubong, Malaysia, production facility where the infrared product lines acquired from Infineon Technologies are tested and assembled. Devices manufactured at the 56,000- square-foot plant include optocouplers, solid-state relays, infrared data communication transceivers (IRDCs), and custom optoelectronic devices. With the acquisition of Infineon's entire infrared components business, Vishay became the largest supplier outside Japan of optocouplers and the largest supplier worldwide of IRDCs. [vishay.com]
Bell Labs Invents Technique for Imaging Atoms Within Si Murray Hill, N.J.-Bell Labs scientists, the R&D arm of Lucent Technologies, have discovered a way to peer deep inside a semiconductor and create an image of a single impurity atom in silicon. The Bell Labs technique is extremely sensitive and can be applied to almost any material, not just semiconductors. It has already proved useful in trouble-shooting and characterizing optoelectronic components. Creating an image of a single impurity may be key to understanding the limits of transistor scaling. The feat-the first time that an individual impurity has been pictured in its undisturbed state within a crystal-was achieved using a special electron microscope. This breakthrough, first described in an article in the journal Nature, will enable scientists to gain an understanding of the way impurities influence the properties of semi-conductors, something that is needed to shrink the size of future generations of high-speed electronic equipment. By using a scanning transmission electron microscope, a team led by physicist David Muller of Bell Labs succeeded in directly imaging individual antimony dopant atoms within crystalline silicon. [lucent.com] Report Contains Good News for Players in OEO Cross-Connects Charlottesville, Va.-A report from industry forecasters Communications Industry Researchers Inc. (CIRI), contains some good news for players in the OEO (optical-electrical-optical) cross-connect market. In spite of the optical recession, CIRI predicts in The Future of Optical Switching: A Market Forecast 2002-2006, that the OEO market will grow from $668 million this year to $4.3 billion in 2006. [cir-inc.com] Mitsui Matsushita Bows 3D Optics Los Altos, Calif.-Mitsui Matsushita Co. Ltd. has introduced a glass-molded 3D lens and mirror designed to reduce costs for high-speed, high-capacity optical communications systems. Sumitomo Corp., the U.S. distributor, says the product enables a smaller footprint for optical transport systems. [sumitomocorp.com] |
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