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World Class Nanotechnology Research Center Opens
Eh-Wire writes "The University of Alberta and Edmonton are mighty proud to be home to the new National Institute of Nanotechnology. The $52.2-million(Canadian) facility is designed to provide the optimal conditions for nano-scale research and to foster collaboration between researchers. Apparently it is Canada's quietest space and engineered that way to minimize vibration and acoustical noise. Even the electrical wiring has been twisted to reduce electro-magnetic interference. Curiously enough the head project architect, Donna Clare of architectural firm, Cohos Evamy was also the head project architect for Edmonton's highly acclaimed Winspear Centre, a concert hall designed specifically to enhance acoustics. There's likely going to be some big things coming from this state-of-the-art research facility for the really really small."
Bloody Stupid Johnson – it's so small, you can get lost just looking for it!
Curiously enough the head project architect, Donna Clare of architectural firm, Cohos Evamy was also the head project architect for Edmonton's highly acclaimed Winspear Centre, a concert hall designed specifically to enhance acoustics.
What's curious about that? If you want a quiet building, I'd think you'd want to hire a guy who's an expert in sound and architecture.
-Grey
Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips
Never say "Johnson" and "it's so small" in the same sentence!
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
There's likely going to be some big things coming
This is done in all the high precision instruments and the facility in which they are installed. TEMs and electron beam lithography tools often have a separate foundation isolated from the rest of the building to minimize vibration issues.
Probably they should mention about the tight control over temperature, humidity and airflow as well.
You might be interested by the recently launched european equivalent : Minatec.
"What's curious about that? If you want a quiet building, I'd think you'd want to hire a guy who's an expert in sound and architecture."
Seems they got off on entirely the wrong foot with head project architect Donna Clare, then.
Perhaps life really is full of possibilities.
The University of Alberta has their own nano tech lab called the NanoFab and it is good for what it did. However it is an open access research facility and the space inside of it was almost all used up by the time I finished working there 2 years ago. This new lab is huge and has tons of room for more equipment and has taken advantage of new construction techniques in order to allow for more sensitive equipment. There is a lot of research in nano-tech happening in Alberta and this will allow it to continue.
The University of Massachusetts in Lowell is building a new $23 million dollar nanotechnology center, with area for corporations to rent for use as assembly systems:4 6.html
http://www.uml.edu/Media/News%20Articles/article3
Its 160,000 sq ft with 30,000 sq ft of clean rooms. Of course it won't be done till the summer of 2008 and cost $80M. The biggest private contribution has been from Bernie Marcus, one of the founders of Home Depot, for $15M.
Georgia Tech Nanotechnology Research CenterNanotech @ Tech
http://www.boredandblogging.com - yes, another pointless blog.
FYI:
requires very low vibration so that the ultra fine tip does not drift with time
The vibrations have absolutely NOTHING to do with drift. The drift is caused by temperature gradients in the microscope. One part of the microscope thermally expands/contracts more than another part and the tip and sample will drift. The vibration issue is another matter related to image noise. The feedback used to maintain a tunneling junction has limited bandwidth and excessive vibrations will show up in images as noise. Minimizing vibrations does nothing more than make quieter images allowing smaller features to be observed.
Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what's right. --Isaac Asimov
Look, grey goo exists, and it's called microbes. Just leave food outside for a couple of days, and you'll see. And generalized dissassemblers can't work simply due to not having enough energy/kg available in the environment (unless you use fire, which could be construed to be a general dissasembler... :-) )