3/17/02
Nanotechnology becomes key research area for NDSU
NDSU's technology-related capabilities are on a rapid upward track.
It all started in August 2001 with a U.S. Department of Defense contract to work on "microsensors" and "nanosensors." The remarkably small sensors are in micrometers or millionths of a meter, and nanometers or billionths of a meter.
The Defense Department recognized NDSU's nationally prominent researchers in polymers and coatings, materials chemistry and computer science, as well as its highly-regarded engineering programs, and selected the university as a site to grow a "center of excellence" in sensor technology research. The program involves a partnership with the University of Alaska, two California companies and one of the country's major defense contractors.
"This is very, very exciting," said NDSU President Joseph A. Chapman of the cutting-edge research funded by the contract. "This is going to allow us to do some things we couldn't do in the past. Nobody else is doing this."
The heart of the new sensor research is something labeled a NanoBlock, which is assembled into tiny electronic devices with a technology called Fluidic Self Assembly. The military is particularly interested in the technology because it will greatly shrink the size of military sensors and lower costs by as much as 100-fold, compared to today's technology.
The innovative technology, exclusively licensed to the university by Alien Technology Corp., Morgan Hill, Calif., allows for tiny circuits that are paper-thin and can conform to nearly any shape. The chips, which are smaller than the "D" mint mark on a dime, can be put on any sort of package, material or coating. The chip can even be activated by a radio frequency wave and information collected from it.
The military is interested in several types of microsensors. For example, acoustic sensors could pick up the sound of approaching combat vehicles, infiltrating soldiers could be located by thermal sensors that read their heat signature and "chem-bio" sensors could detect threats from chemical and biological weapons.
There also are many civilian uses of the sensors, such as in tires that relay a message to a vehicle's dashboard when a tire is nearing failure, in burglar alarms or in screening for explosives at airports. The Defense Department emphasizes that it wants "dual use" microsensors, so that production runs will be large, making the sensors less expensive to the military.
Philip Boudjouk, vice president for research, creative activities and technology transfer, likes to demonstrate the remarkable technology by holding a 1 inch vial filled with computer chips. "We have more than 100,000 chips in here," he said. "This is amazing."
At press time, NDSU was engaged in the program planning phase for three other Defense Department-sponsored research programs.
One of the new projects involves miniaturized wireless systems. The project will involve NDSU students and researchers with companies that are world leaders in components for next generation mobile telephones, pagers and other devices. Partners include Tessera Technology Inc., San Jose, Calif., and Signal Technology Corp. of Massachusetts and Arizona.
Tessera's area of expertise is with chips imbedded in polymers in a method called "chip scale packaging," which is licensed in more than 35 commercial products and can be found in items produced by PlayStation, Nokia, Intel, Sharp, Motorola and Compaq. Signal builds devices for the Defense Department. The plan includes establishing a facility at NDSU to fabricate multilayer sensors using Tessera's packaging technology, with Signal providing "systems integration."
Another program will focus on melding NDSU's experience in polymer materials with rapid synthesis and screening technology developed by Symyx Technologies Inc., Santa Clara, Calif. The polymer materials will address military needs for anti-fouling coatings for ships, UV-curable polymers and aircraft protective coatings.
Symyx's new proprietary equipment will allow NDSU researchers to conduct experiments on 128 to 384 samples at the same time. According to Boudjouk, "This technology changes fundamentally the way some our scientists will conduct their research. Now, multiple experiments will be executed in 'parallel' as opposed to the traditional 'one at a time' serial fashion."
In addition, the Defense Research Projects Agency has invited NDSU to develop a "satellite research site" as part of a major new effort in "spintronics nanotechnology" that is just getting underway at the University of California campuses at Santa Barbara, Riverside and Los Angeles. The research will build on NDSU's research strengths in fabricating carbon "nanotubes" and complex polymers.
When each contract is in place, funding for this type of research at NDSU will have gone from about $1 million per year in mid-2001 to $16 million by late 2002. To help administer the programs, Gregory McCarthy, until recently chair of the chemistry department, was appointed to a new position of associate vice president for interdisciplinary research.
"These programs require new facilities and skill sets for us," McCarthy said. "Much of the research must be done in high-tech 'clean rooms,' and additional help is needed to deal with the more complex requirements of Defense Department contracts, as compared to grants."
McCarthy is developing a new science and engineering center and has pulled together a team of specialists to help manage the new work.
First to join the team was Dean Grier, a materials characterization specialist, who is leading a group of faculty, staff and students in a review of sensor technology, and is preparing the groundwork for the satellite research site. Specialists in clean room design and operation, government contracts and finance, technology transfer traineeships and project logistics also have been hired for the new center.
To accommodate the work, NDSU will construct a second research building at the Research and Technology Park. Architectural planning for the 70,000 square foot structure is underway, and groundbreaking is expected this year. The center's research currently is being conducted in existing laboratories across the campus, and in new space made available by the move of the polymers and coatings department to the park's first research building.
Meantime, the Defense Department contract is funding the conversion of a Dunbar Hall laboratory into a "Class 10,000 cleanroom." More than $500,000 will be spent on the conversion and necessary electronics fabrication tools. In addition, a room in Ladd Hall will become an advanced electronics design laboratory where students and faculty from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering will work.
The College of Science and Mathematics is playing a prominent role in the new interdisciplinary research programs. Seth Rasmussen, assistant professor of chemistry; Qun Huo, assistant professor of polymers and coatings; and chemistry research associates Seok-Bong Choi and Thomas Ready are studying chemical sensors. Polymers and coatings professors Dean Webster and Stuart Croll are working on the UV-curable polymers. Gordon Bierwagen, professor and chair of polymers and coatings, and William Perrizo, professor of computer science, serve on the faculty advisory committee to the program.
"I'm especially excited for student researchers. By the end of 2002, we expect to be funding two dozen graduate and undergraduate research assistants from the programs," McCarthy said. "They will acquire expertise with facilities, instruments and fabrication tools that is found at only a few major universities. They will be much in demand after they graduate, and we hope to have many new high-tech opportunities for them right here."
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