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eNewsletter
May 2008 |
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Product News
- Angstron Introduces Nanomaterial Solution to Meet Market Demand for Next Generation Products
- PolyOne’s Gravi-TechTM and Therma-TechTM Aid in Metal to Plastics Conversions
- Arnold Umformtechnik: Aluminium Replaces Steel
Industry News
- Global Market for Sputtering Targets and Sputtered Films Slated for High Growth Through 2012
- Unidym, Inc. Announces the First Flight of an Aircraft Using Carbon Nanotubes for Increased Fuselage Strength
- Global Solar Energy Selected by The Dow Chemical Company as Key Team Member in Developing Energized Building Products
Research and Development
- Sticky Nanotubes Hold Key to Future Technologies
Event Listing
- May 18-22, Electrochemical Society Spring, Phoenix, Ariz.
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Thermal Management and Technology Symposium 2008 to Include Materials Workshop
 Webcom Communications has announced a new pre-conference workshop for Thermal Management and Technology Symposium 2008. Dr. Carl Zweben, and advanced thermal materials consultant will lead the workshop Advanced Thermal Management Materials.
The full-day conference will begin at 8 a.m. on Sept. 24 at the Hyatt Regency Austin, in Austin Texas. Lunch will be provided.
Attendees will learn about heat dissipation, thermal stresses and warping are critical microelectronic and optoelectronic packaging problems. In response, suppliers are developing an increasing number of high-performance thermal management materials. This full-day course provides an in-depth discussion of the increasing number of ultrahigh-thermal-conductivity and other advanced materials. Topics include properties, manufacturing processes, applications, cost, lessons learned, and future directions, including carbon nanotubes, thermal interface materials and low-CTE solders. Traditional materials are included for reference. Click here to register!
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| PRODUCT NEWS |
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Angstron Introduces Nanomaterial Solution to Meet Market Demand for Next Generation Products
Angstron Materials LLC has developed an alternative to nanotubes. The carbon-based material is called nano-graphene platelets (NGPs). Similar to carbon nanotubes, the properties and characteristics of NGPs outperform all other nanomaterials on the market. Angstron’s nano-graphene product is well suited for aerospace, automotive, energy, marine, electronics, construction, medical and telecommunications applications.
The new material demonstrates the highest thermal conductivity known today, five times that of copper, a capability that provides faster thermal dissipation. NGPs also provide electrical conductivity similar to copper yet the material’s density is four times lower, resulting in lighter weight components. NGPs are 50 times stronger than steel with a surface area twice that of carbon nanotubes. These exceptional performance characteristics equip customers with the capability to modify and create new products with the potential to achieve competitive advantage and generate higher profit margins.
Angstron can produce oxide-free pristine NGP products in thicknesses ranging from 0.34 to 100 nanometers and widths of 0.5-20 microns in length. High length-to-thickness aspect ratios of up to 10,000 are available. In addition, Angstron can modify the chemistry of the nano-platelet surface to fine-tune electrical, thermal, mechanical, optical, magnetic, chemical and other key performance properties while maintaining precision control of platelet dimensions and other physical parameters.
Angstron’s engineered NPGs are available in several forms including raw materials and solutions. These solutions can achieve a high loading and maintain uniform dispersion without degrading viscosity. Angstron’s NGP product can be blended with other nanomaterials to achieve higher loadings required for various forms of composite lamina as well as nanocomposites for load-bearing and functional applications.
Angstron’s skilled team can also tailor nanomaterial products to customers’ manufacturing processes, enhanced materials or device needs. The advanced materials specialist offers customers a total turnkey solution from application development and pilot quantities for test articles to scale-up for required production volumes. Angstron is currently working with companies to develop products for batteries, fuel cells, supercapacitors, light weight structural components as well as electromagnetic interference (EMI), radio magnetic indicator (RMI), electrostatic discharge (ESD), lightning strike and composite applications.
PolyOne’s Gravi-TechTM and Therma-TechTM Aid in Metal to Plastics Conversions
PolyOne Corp., a provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions, has announced two polymer technologies aimed at helping designers and molders expand the horizons of metal to plastics conversions.
The new PolyOne technologies are Gravi-Tech polymer-metal composites, an alternative to lead and traditional metals in many non-traditional thermoplastic applications and Therma-Tech thermal management compounds, which combine the heat transfer and cooling capabilities of metals with the design freedom, weight reduction and cost advantages of thermoplastics.
“PolyOne’s Specialty Engineered Materials business supplies high-performance polymer compounds for challenging applications,” said Craig Nikrant, vice president and general manager, Specialty Engineered Materials.
With a variety of metallic fillers, Gravi-Tech high-density compounds mimic the look and feel of lead and other metals, yet offer the design flexibility and processing ease of thermoplastics. Among the benefits offered by these polymer-metal composites are:
- Customizable densities up to 11 gm/cm3\
- High-yield strength
- FDA-compliant grades suitable for food, drug and cosmetics packaging
- Flexible high density compositions
PolyOne’s Therma-Tech thermal management compounds provide the benefits of proprietary conductive additive technologies and the performance of select engineering thermoplastic resins. Therma-Tech compounds have been shown to improve thermal conductivity 50 to 100 times above the level of conventional plastics and can be used in a wide range of thermal management applications.
Primary benefits of Therma-Tech compounds compared with fabricated metal include:
- Low coefficient of thermal expansion
- Reduced weight
- Lower cost compared with machined components and lower shipping cost
- Inherent corrosion/oxidation resistance
- Design flexibility, more complex shapes
- Part consolidation, reduced assembly costs
Gravi-Tech and Therma-Tech are the newest members of an engineered compounds portfolio.
Arnold Umformtechnik: Aluminium Replaces Steel
 The increasing importance of magnesium as a construction material requires an inspired pairing of materials when it comes to screw fastenings. Alufast aluminium screws from Arnold Umformtechnik have proved to be well suited for making screw fastenings on housing sections, brackets and stiffeners made of magnesium.
The approximately 350 gram weight advantage over steel versions means that Alufast screws are of interest to design engineers working in many fields, including gearbox design. An investigation carried out by fastener specialists Arnold Umformtechnik GmbH found that this was the weight saving that could be made in a gearbox containing 20 screws. In terms of annual production of, say 100,000 gear boxes, that would translate to a saving of some 35 tons of steel.
At the same time the Alufast range scores even more points when used in corrosive atmospheres where fastener locations are subjected to particularly high temperature loads. Alufast screws have proven to be of particular value under thermal loads. The mechanical properties of the screws remain stable over a long-term period of load, up to peak temperature of 150°C.
Designers can use standard head settings when fastening magnesium components, unlike steel screws, which would require larger head settings. The screws achieve process reliability, high strength and expansion characteristics, and also possess excellent anti-corrosion properties. |
| INDUSTRY NEWS |
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Global Market for Sputtering Targets and Sputtered Films Slated for High Growth Through 2012
According to a new technical market research report, Sputtering Targets and Sputtered Films: Technology and Markets from BCC Research, the global market for sputtered films and sputtering targets was worth $2.8 billion in 2007. This is expected to increase to $5.9 billion by 2012, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.8 percent.
Nearly 1.3 million sputtering targets were consumed in 2007. This is expected to increase to more than 1.5 million targets in 2012, for a CAGR of 3.6 percent. In 2007 this amounted to 1,217.7 million square meters of thin films for semiconductors, passive components, recording heads, flat panel displays, data storage media, wear and corrosion resistant coatings, lubricant films, photovoltaic cells, automotive and architectural glass, biological coatings and other applications. This is expected to increase to 1,980.2 million square meters by the end of 2012, for a CAGR of 10.2 percent.
The microelectronics sector historically has been the largest consumer of sputtering targets, but this will change by 2012. In the semiconductor industry, the ongoing transition to copper wiring, which uses electroplating as the major thin film deposition method, and the introduction of alternative manufacturing technologies to meet the miniaturization requirements established by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, will lead to reduced use of the sputtering process during the next 5 years.
Nevertheless, sales of sputtering targets are expected to grow at a very healthy rate, driven by the utilization of these products in the fabrication process of other fast growing applications, such as advanced displays and solar cells. Other factors that will positively affect the expansion of the sputtering target market include the availability of new target compositions for emerging applications, the availability of raw materials and process equipment, and the increasing market penetration of the sputtering process in developing countries.
Unidym, Inc. Announces the First Flight of an Aircraft Using Carbon Nanotubes for Increased Fuselage Strength
Unidym, Inc., a majority-owned subsidiary of Arrowhead Research Corp., has announced the first flight of an aircraft incorporating Unidym’s carbon nanotubes into its airframe for increased strength and flexibility to combat the effects of aerodynamic stress and engine vibration. On April 11, Avalon Aviation’s Giles G-200 aircraft flew with Unidym’s carbon nanotubes incorporated into its carbon fiber composite engine cowling. The Giles G-200 is a high performance, single engine fully aerobatic carbon composite aircraft.
High performance aerobatic aircraft are often the industry’s test bed for new airframe technology. They are generally subject to increased levels of vibration and stress which typically induce cracking in airframe components. Engine cowlings in particular must endure significant engine vibration while simultaneously twisting and constantly shifting with respect to the rest of the airframe during aerobatic flight. A cowling experiences a variety of stresses from increased G-force and gyroscopic forces as the aircraft is flown to the limit of its performance envelope.
“We are delighted that Avalon Aviation decided to incorporate Unidym’s carbon nanotubes into this sophisticated, state-of-the-art aircraft,” said Arthur Swift, Unidym’s president and CEO. “For some time now the aerospace industry has been looking into the structural use of carbon nanotubes in high performance, composite airframes. To our knowledge this successful flight is the first time carbon nanotubes have actually been flown as part of a major composite component of an aircraft’s fuselage.”
Avalon Aviation applied carbon nanotechnology to this problem in order to increase the strength, while retaining flexibility, and also to lower the density of the resin used in the cowling’s carbon fiber composite material. This weight reduction is a significant secondary benefit as the Giles G-200 typically experiences between 10 and -10 times the force of gravity as it performs some of the most difficult aerobatic maneuvers possible for a human piloted aircraft. Avalon Aviation’s Giles G-200 is flown by nationally recognized US competitive aerobatics pilot, Greg Howard.
“We’ve applied Unidym’s technology in a critical area of the Giles G-200,” said Greg Howard, chief pilot and co-owner of Avalon Aviation. “We are constantly looking for ways to reduce any potential composite failures due to vibration and other forms of stress. We are excited about potential composite applications of carbon nanotechnology and look forward to learning more from this initial application in order to expand the use of nanotubes elsewhere in our aircraft.”
Global Solar Energy Selected by The Dow Chemical Company as Key Team Member in Developing Energized Building Products
Global Solar Energy, a solar industry manufacturer of thin-film solar cells for glass modules or flexible material products, has announced Dow Building Solutions, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company, has invited Global Solar to participate in its US Department of Energy Solar America Initiative (SAI) project to help create innovative building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) products. As a part of its SAI program, Dow is creating a flexible solar roof shingle, and has made Global Solar a key team member in its development.
“We are collaborating with Global Solar Energy because throughout our search for a solar material provider, it was the only company able to supply a qualifying flexible Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide (CIGS) material that meets our needs and the requirements of the SAI,” said Bob Cleereman, senior director of Solar & Structural Technology with Dow Building Solutions.
The SAI is comprised of companies, laboratories, universities and non-profit organizations. As part of the initiative, Dow is participating in the Technology Pathway Partnership, which was designed to accelerate the commercialization of US-produced solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. Global Solar Energy replaced Dow’s original PV material provider in this program.
The mission of the SAI is to create solar electricity cost competitiveness with grid electricity by 2015. The use of flexible CIGS thin-film technologies in building-integrated applications is a key component to that effort, helping lower the cost of solar electricity so that it is cost-competitive across all US market sectors. Decentralized energy supplies such as PV diversifies the nation’s electricity portfolio, enhances grid reliability, and reduces the impact of a failure of the US centralized electricity infrastructure. |
| EVENT LISTINGS |
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May 18-22,
Electrochemical Society Spring,
Phoenix, Ariz. |
| RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT |
Sticky Nanotubes Hold Key to Future Technologies
 Researchers at Purdue University have precisely measured the forces required to peel tiny nanotubes off of other materials, opening up the possibility of creating standards for nano-manufacturing and harnessing a gecko's ability to walk up walls. So-called "peel tests" are used extensively in manufacturing. Knowing how much force is needed to pull a material off of another material is essential for manufacturing, but no tests exist for nanoscale structures, said Arvind Raman, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue. Researchers are trying to learn about the physics behind the "stiction," or how the tiny structures stick to other materials, to manufacture everything from nanoelectronics to composite materials, "nanotweezers" to medical devices using nanotubes, nanowires and biopolymers such as DNA and proteins, he said.
Flexible carbon nanotubes stick to surfaces differently than larger structures because of attractive forces between individual atoms called van der Waals forces. "Operating in a nanoscale environment is sort of like having flypaper everywhere because of the attraction of van der Waals forces," Raman said. "These forces are very relevant on this size scale because a nanometer is about 10 atoms wide."
Mechanical engineering doctoral student Mark Strus made the first peeling-force measurements for nanotubes in research based at the Birck Nanotechnology Center in Purdue's Discovery Park. Findings were detailed in a research paper written by Strus; materials engineering doctoral student Luis Zalamea; Raman; Byron Pipes, the John Leighton Bray Distinguished Professor of Engineering; NASA engineer Cattien Nguyen; and Eric Stach, an associate professor of materials engineering.
The energy it takes to peel a nanotube from a surface was measured in "nanonewtons," perhaps a billion times less energy than that required to lift a cup of coffee. That peeling energy is proportional to the nanotube's "interfacial energy," which is one measure of how sticky something is, Strus said.
"This whole idea of measuring the stickiness of something is a standard material test in industry," he said. "There are certain tests that you need to have for measuring strength, toughness and adhesion."
But until now, no such test had been completed to successfully measure and quantify these forces on the nanoscale. Nanotubes offer promise to produce a new class of composite materials that are stronger than conventional composites for use in aircraft and vehicles.
"This is a big area of research primarily because the strength of nanotubes can be much greater than that of carbon nanofibers," Raman said. However, properly integrating high-strength nanotubes into polymers for composite materials requires a knowledge of how the nanotubes stick to polymers and to each other.
"One of the big areas in composites, in general, and nanocomposites, in particular, is how to coat a fiber with a material that makes it stick better to the matrix," Raman said. "So it's really important to know how to judge which coatings work best for specific types of fibers. For larger fibers, industry knows which coatings work best, but such knowledge is scarce for nanoscale fibers. It's all about how to make nanotubes 'sticky' to the surrounding matrix."
Nanotubes also must be dispersed uniformly in a solution before being mixed with the polymer to make composite materials, but the tiny rods tend to clump together. Learning precisely how the tubes adhere to each other could lead to a method for dispersing them.
The findings also promise to help researchers understand how geckos are able to stick to surfaces, a trait that could translate into practical uses for industrial and military applications.
Tiny branching hairs called setae on the animal's front feet use van der Waals adhesion.
"The question is, how does it stick, and, equally important, if the adhesion force is strong enough to hold its weight onto a surface like a wall, then how does it then unstick, or peel, itself to move up a vertical surface?" Strus said.
Nanotubes also have possible medical applications, such as creating more effective bone grafts and biomolecular templates to replace damaged tissues, which requires knowing precisely how the nanotubes adhere to cells. Yet another potential application is a "nanotweezer" that might use two nanorods to manipulate components for tiny devices and machines.
Raman and Strus plotted how much force it took to peel nanotubes from surfaces, discovering that the tubes lift off in fits and starts instead of smoothly."We saw these jumps in peeling forces, where the nanotubes would lift off suddenly and then snag, lift off suddenly and then snag. This behavior has a very deep physical significance and can only be appreciated by means of mathematical models," Raman said.
Pipes and Zalamea, meanwhile, had already been developing theoretical models to describe how the nanotubes would peel away from a surface and from each other. The four researchers then worked together with the others to fine tune the model, which describes the physics of why nanotubes peel off unevenly.
The nanotubes used in the research had a length of about 6 microns, or millionths of a meter and were 40 nanometers wide, roughly 500 times thinner than a human hair.
The researchers used an atomic force microscope to measure the peeling forces. The nanotube was attached to the end of a diving-board shaped part of the microscope called a microcantilever. As the nanotube was pulled away from a surface, the cantilever bent. This bending movement was tracked with a laser, revealing the forces required to peel the nanotube.
The carbon nanotubes for the research were provided by NASA. With the assistance of Stach, the structure of the nanotubes was characterized using a transmission electron microscope. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Korean Center for Nanomanufacturing and Mechatronics. Strus' work is supported in part with a Bilsland Fellowship, which he was awarded this year. Future work may focus on making measurements that apply to nanocomposites. |
| JOB LISTINGS |
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| Upcoming Industry Events - Click HERE to view our full Calendar of Events |
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May 2008
7-9 The Thirteenth Meeting of the Symposium on Polymers for Microelectronics, Wilmington, Del.
18-23 Electrochemical Society Spring, Phoenix, Ariz.
27-30 Electronic Components and Technology Conference 2008, Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
 SEMICON West 2008
July 15-17
San Francisco, Calif.
SEMICON West 2008–Infinite Innovations, Infinite Ideas SEMICON West is the place to see the companies, technologies, and people driving the future of micro design and manufacturing. No other event this year has more new products, more new technologies, and more solutions than SEMICON West.
From the latest developments in cutting-edge materials, to the systems and technologies driving semiconductor designs to the limits of Moore's Law, you'll find everything and everyone in the industry at SEMICON West.
Registration is now open! Plan now to participate and get ready to discover the infinite opportunities shaping the design and manufacture of semiconductors, MEMS, photovoltaics, flexible electronics, and more!
For more information, visit www.semiconwest.org.
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