C.J. Hawker (UCSB) and T.P. Russell (UMASS) A collaboration between researchers supported by the NSF-MRSEC programs at UC Santa Barbara, UMASS Amherst, and CPIMA has led to a revolutionary chip breakthrough that promises to be used in every future microelectronic device. Exploiting novel chemistry and physics, nanoporous thin films have been fabricated from self assembling block copolymers in a lithographic process that allows traditional dielectric materials to be replaced by air. This permits chips to run faster and use less energy. This is a significant advance in exploiting nanotechnology and enhances the competitiveness of US companies in this critical industry. According to Dr. John Kelly, IBM’s senior vice president of research and development, “To our knowledge, this is the first time anyone has used nanoscale self-assembled materials to build things that machines aren’t capable of doing.”
Industrial Outreach - Section in Development :: Stanford/ IBM ARC/ UC Davis/ UC Berkeley
Q-Sense
Q-Sense AB was founded in 1996 by a group of researchers at Applied Physics, Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden where QCM related research had been going on since the 1970s. The research group discovered and patented (1995) a whole new way of extracting mass and viscosity parameters for surface analysis in liquid, based on the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM).
Q-Sense technology makes it possible to study how various molecules interact with different surfaces or with each other. Information about the mass of the bound molecules and how they adsorb or interact can be ascertained. To get real-time, structural information about the adsorption/interaction of e.g. proteins interacting with optional surface is truly unique and possible thanks to the so-called D-factor.
Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies will be the world’s leading provider of test and measurement solutions and communications components. The company’s products and services serve markets that include communications, electronics, life sciences, healthcare and semiconductor products, and contributed nearly $8 billion in revenues to HP during the company’s fiscal year 1998. In particular, the Chemical Analysis Group is a leading provider of analytical instrument systems that enable customers to identify, quantify, analyze and test the atomic, molecular, physical and biological properties of thousands of substances and products. Agilent Technologies also supports a central Laboratory the “Agilent Labs”, which is an important part of the world-renowned Hewlett-Packard Laboratories. Our laboratories decided to join CPIMA because this center provides an interdisciplinary platform for the fundamental understanding of interfaces that play relvant roles in the sensing and physico-chemical behavior of biological and synthetic substances.