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At Zyvex, we’ve developed, and continue to develop
a large portfolio of R&D programs and activities support
leading governmental agencies spearheading nanotechnology
initiatives critical to our nation’s economic development,
health, and safety.
Some of our government alliances are with NIST,
DARPA, and DoE.
Zyvex is providing manufacturing solutions at
the micro- and nanoscale through our NIST-ATP
award, “Assemblers for Nanotechnology Applications and
Manufacturing: Enabling the Nanotechnology Era.” The
NIST-ATP awarded this $25 million program to Zyvex in 2001
for the explicit purpose of developing systems that provide
highly-parallel microassembly and nanoassembly for real-world,
high-volume applications. The program ended in December 2006,
but the effects are seen through ongoing developments in our
commercial products. The Advanced Technology Program (ATP)
bridges the gap between the research lab and the marketplace,
stimulating prosperity through innovation.
The Zyvex NIST-ATP is a prime example of government,
small and big business, and universities working together
toward a shared vision of broad economic and social benefit,
through high-technical-risk research. Under this program,
Zyvex, Honeywell, and the University of Texas at Dallas and
the University of Virginia, worked to accelerate the production
and commercialization of low-cost assemblers for micro- and
nanoscale components and subsystems. The team is developing
MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) assembly tools, extending
these capabilities to parallel microassembly and nanometer
geometries, and developing NanoElectroMechanical Systems (NEMS)
for prototype nanoscale assemblers.
The NIST-ATP continues to have a profound impact
on our technological future. This program is a prime example
of how a small, innovative nanotechnology company, partnering
with government, key universities, and big business, can revolutionize
the manufacturing industry by developing and commercializing
microassembly and nanotechnology.
These nanomanufacturing technologies will revitalize
the manufacturing sector. It will also substantially stimulate
the global economy by creating thousands and thousands of
jobs and enable us to manufacture goods and services at a
fraction of their current cost. Manufacturing would no longer
be about making the cheapest things possible, but about making
things with the ultimate precision at the lowest cost —
a formidable combination.
The Zyvex definition of Micro/Nano manufacturing
is: The precision assembly and handling of components smaller
than three millimeters, and requiring assembly accuracies
from ten micrometers to ten nanometers.
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| Activating
a bi-stable connector |
Automated Micro/Nano assembly is the process
of performing assembly operations using a software-controlled
robotic system. This system consists of robotics, a graphical
user interface, end-effector tooling, system software, and
any required peripheral tools or sub-systems.
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| 4-component
parallel assembly |
The Zyvex NIST-ATP team developed the initial
tools to enable the assembly of microscale components for
applications ranging from research to volume manufacturing.
We can now provide manufacturing solutions for serial precision
assembly and handling of components smaller than three millimeters,
with assembling accuracies down to one micrometer.
Zyvex is meeting the growing micro manufacturing
needs of our customers and partners as a direct result of
our NIST-ATP. Some examples of commercialization success are
microgrippers and MEMS visualization software.
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Zyvex sells microscale
grippers developed during the first year of our
NIST-ATP. The first customer was Sandia National Laboratories.
Here we show an example of our silicon
microgippers (with a 500 micron opening). |
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Zyvex licenses our MEMulator®
process emulation and visualization software to Coventor,
Inc. who integrates parts of this tool into their
comprehensive tool set: CoventorWare™.
The image (at top left) was taken with
Zyvex’s MEMulator.
The image (at bottom left) is an actual
SEM image of the MEMS assembly. |
) In
May 2003, Zyvex announced the award of a eight-month SBIR
program entitled, “Miniaturizing Scanning Electron Microscope.”
The program’s objective is
to develop a low cost, high precision method for manufacturing
miniaturized e-beam columns, resulting in widespread applications
in imaging and lithography. Specifically, this manufacturing
technology will enable widespread applications of miniaturized
e-beam columns through inexpensive, parallel automated assembly.
The Zyvex team will develop low-cost,
high-performance columns will make e-beam technology broadly
available to single- and multi-column users previously unable
to afford this technology.
The current specialized SEM applications
will blossom into a much wider range of applications. Perhaps
the application most impacted in the long run will be
lithography, through the use of large
arrays of e-beam columns. The SEM applications market
needs to be willing to “think outside the
box” in order to take advantage of the wide
range of commercial applications made possible by the lower
cost and significantly reduced size of columns produced with
this technology.
The DARPA award for mini-SEMS is
just one application of Zyvex’s micro- and nanoassembly
technologies.
In July 2002,
Zyvex announced an R&D award from the U.S. Department
of Energy. The materials research industry lacks robust
Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) tools for nanomanipulation.
Zyvex has developed many nanomanipulation tools over the years,
and under this program is developing a new design for a reliable
manipulation and characterization tool adapted for high-resolution
TEMs.
This program will enable Zyvex to address the
market need for the simultaneous nanomanipulation, accurate
electrical measurement, and micro/nano structural analysis
of materials.
If you would like to learn more about our alliances,
please contact our Corporate Communications department by
phone at 972.792.1620 or by email at info@zyvex.com.
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