High Tech Ceramics News articles from April 2006

High Tech Ceramics News archives from April 2006

STOCK MARKET STAR Ceramic Body Armor Propels Performance.
April 1, 2006... New darling emerges on hot tech lists Demand for higher quality military body armor in Iraq and Afghanistan is putting a fire under the stock price of Ceradyne, which also hopes to develop advanced ceramics technology to protect vehicles...

War Needs Trigger Supply Growth.
April 1, 2006... Two factors on the supply side are also contributing significantly to the Ceradyne results involving body armor. One was the serendipitous acquisition in August, 2004, of ESK Ceramics, which manufactures boron carbide powder, the key raw...

BIOCERAMICS A Ceramics First: Spinal Implants.
April 1, 2006... The highly specialized and strongly growing market for ceramic implants got a boost with a key federal approval for what is described as the world's first ceramic spinal implant system for humans. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave...

CoorsTek Enters Implantables Business.
April 1, 2006... CoorsTek announced the creation of C5 Medical Werks Inc., a new subsidiary focused on manufacturing advanced ceramic implantable components. This new subsidiary will serve implantable device manufacturers with biocompatible technical ceramic...

JV Forms to Develop Matrices for Orthopedics.
April 1, 2006... Aastrom Biosciences, Inc., Ann Arbor, MI, and Orthovita, Inc., Malvern, PA, jointly announced an agreement to develop products for the orthopedics market using Orthovita's synthetic ceramic matrices and ceramic-collagen matrices (VITOSS) and...

Smith & Nephew Launches Knee System.
April 1, 2006... Smith & Nephew Ortohpedic Reconstruction launched a bi-cruciate stabilized knee system which is described as the first-ever designed to actually restore natural knee motion. One of the key features is the company's proprietary Oxinum oxidized...

New Patents in Bioceramics Dental Application.
April 1, 2006... Patent No.: 7,022,173 Inventors: Cummings; Kevin M. (Little Canada, MN); Rolf; Jacqueline C. (River Falls, WI); Rosenflanz; Anatoly Z. (Maplewood, MN); Rusin; Richard P. (Woodbury, MN); Swanson; Jerome E. (St. Paul, MN) Assignee: 3M...

Dental glass powders.
April 1, 2006... Patent No.: 6,993,934 Inventors: Kodas; Toivo T. (Albuquerque, NM); Hampden-Smith; Mark J. (Albuquerque, NM); Powell; Quint H. (Albuquerque, NM); Brewster; James H. (Albuquerque, NM); Skamser; Daniel J. (Greenville, SC); Kunze; Klaus...

Dental cement composition.
April 1, 2006... Patent No.: 6,984,673 Inventors: Kawashima; Mitsunobu (Kurashiki, JP); Omura; Ikuo (Kurashiki, JP); Yamashita; Mayumi (Kurashiki, JP) Assignee: Kuraray Co., Ltd. (Kurashiki, JP) One embodiment of the invention provides a dental cement...

Orthodontic development.
April 1, 2006... Patent No.: 6,984,261 Inventors: Cummings; Kevin M. (Little Canada, MN); Rolf; Jacqueline C. (River Falls, WI); Rosenflanz; Anatoly Z. (Maplewood, MN); Rusin; Richard P. (Woodbury, MN); Swanson; Jerome E. (St. Paul, MN) Assignee: 3M...

Dental bridge assembly.
April 1, 2006... Patent No.: 6,939,136 Inventors: Nielsen; Lise-Lotte Kjaerulff (Brabrand, DK) Assignee: K L ApS (.ANG.rhus, DK) In the formation of dental bridges, the preferred material is a tightly-sintered aluminium oxide, and it is normal practice...

ELECTRONICS CERAMICS Ceramics Beat Tantalum, Plastics in Capacitors.
April 1, 2006... Recent gains by ceramics in multilayer capacitor markets will accelerate due to advances in ceramics technology that overcome their historic technical limitations. Multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) have made strong gains for a wide...

Ceramic Film Is One Key To Much Faster Clock Speeds.
April 1, 2006... NEC Corp. has developed fundamental silicon (Si) nanophotonics technology that facilitates optical data transmission in large-scale integration (LSI) chips through elimination of data transmission traffic jams. One impact is the reduction of...

Murawa Expands Indian Component Manufacturing.
April 1, 2006... Maruwa of Japan will boost its investment in its recently acquired plant in Chennai, India, if further demand for advanced ceramic components materializes as expected from a cellular phone producer. Its new plant will begin production this...

New Patents: Advanced Ceramics Substrate Integration.
April 1, 2006... Patent No: 6,933,530 Inventors: Toet; Daniel (Mountain View, CA); Sigmon; Thomas W. (Albuquerque, NM) Assignee: The Regents of the University of California (Oakland, CA) A process for direct integration of a thin-film silicon p-n junction...

Lithography Scanning.
April 1, 2006... Patent No.: 7,009,359 Inventor: del Puerto; Santiago E. (Milton, NY) Assignee: ASML Holding N.V. (Veldhoven, NL) A foam core chuck for use in a scanning stage of a lithography system is disclosed. In accordance with an embodiment of the...

Thermal spray compositions for abradable seals.
April 1, 2006... Inventors: Fiala; Petr (Edmonton, CA); Chilkowich; Anthony Peter (Fort Saskatchewan, CA); Hajmrle; Karel (Edmonton, CA) Assignee: Sulzer Metco (Canada) Inc. (Fort Saskatchewan, CA) A thermal spray composition and method of deposition for...

Small form factor transceiver.
April 1, 2006... Inventors: Aronson; Lewis B. (Los Altos, CA); Giaretta; Giorgio (Mountain View, CA); Schiaffino; Stefano (Menlo Park, CA); Kumar; Dev E. (San Jose, CA); Mason; T. G. Beck (San Jose, CA) Assignee: Finisar Corp. (Sunnyvale, CA) This...

Joining of advanced materials.
April 1, 2006... Inventors: Goretta; Kenneth C. (Downers Grove, IL); Routbort; Jules L. (Hinsdale, IL); Gutierrez-Mora; Felipe (Woodridge, IL) Assignee: University of Chicago (Chicago, IL) A method for utilizing superplastic deformation with or without a...

Impregnated fiber strands.
April 1, 2006... Inventors: Lawton; Ernest L. (Clemmons, NC); Velpari; Vedagiri (Monroeville, PA); Rice; William B. (Clemmons, NC); Robertson; Walter J. (Pittsburgh, PA); Novich; Bruce E. (Barrington, RI); Wu; Xiang (Littleton, CO); Lammon-Hilinski; Kami...

Ceramic exhaust filter.
April 1, 2006... Inventors: Alward; Gordon S. (Palm Dessert, CA); DiChiara, Jr.; Robert A. (Carlsbad, CA) Assignee: GEO2 Technologies, Inc. (Weston, MA) An improved, efficient, and regenerable exhaust emission filter and filter system are provided which...

Sleeved ultrasonic transducer.
April 1, 2006... Inventors: Goodson; J. Michael (Skillman, NJ) Assignee: The Crest Group, Inc. (Trenton, NJ) A sleeved ultrasonic transducer has a two-part head mass, including a threaded sleeve and an outer housing that are composed of different...

OPTICAL MATERIALS Corning Launches Arsenic-Free LCD.
April 1, 2006... Corning launched EAGLE XG, described as the industry's first liquid crystal display (LCD) glass substrate that is free of all heavy metals, including arsenic. As with an earlier iteration, EAGLE2000, it is also free of antimony and barium, and...

METROLOGY AND ANALYSIS Veeco Expands SPM Offerings.
April 1, 2006... Veeco Instruments, Woodbury, NY, a supplier of instrumentation to the research and nanoscience community, is launching two new scanning probe microscope (SPM) products, the MultiMode V SPM and the Dimension V SPM for a broad range of research...

Nano Requirements Drive Improved Electronics Analysis.
April 1, 2006... Jordan Valley has taken a key position in the "Metrology Using X-Ray Technology" (MUXT) consortium where they will introduce a new, fast Wide Angle micro-XRD tool for monitoring Cu/low k processes. Also participating in the consortium are ST...

INDUSTRY NEWS Corning Boosts Capacity At Chinese Components Plant.
April 1, 2006... Corning approved a capital expenditure of approximately $15 million to expand the manufacturing capabilities at Corning Shanghai Company, Ltd. (CSCL) in Shanghai, China for advanced ceramic substrates for light-duty vehicle applications....

CeramTec Takes Over Ceramic Seals from Ideal.
April 1, 2006... CeramTec AG Innovative Ceramic Engineering, Plochingen, Germany, will take over the production of cartridges, seal and regulator discs for sanitary fittings from Ideal Standard GmbH & Co OHG, located in Wittlich, Germany effective in June. ...

Exports Boom for Ceramic-Based Desalinization.
April 1, 2006... Energy Recovery Inc. (ERI), San Leandro, Calif., is the 2006 Small Business Environmental Exporter of the Year, according to the Export-Import Bank of the United States. ERI's patented PX recovers energy from the high-pressure waste stream...

CALENDAR.(Calendar)
April 1, 2006... April 17-21, 2006 MRS Spring Meeting - San Francisco, CA. Features 37 technical symposia in six topical clusters and an international exhibit highlighting products and services. Contact: Materials Research Society 506 Keystone Drive,...

TECHNOLOGY INSIGHT Ceramics breakthrough opens fuel cells to homes.
April 1, 2006... Contributed by: The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) for the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) project on advanced ceramic reactors. AIST has developed a micro...

Why It's Important.
April 1, 2006... Since fuel cells have highly efficient power-generation performance, they can drastically reduce the generation of CO2, which is considered to be a cause of global warming. Various types of fuel cells, such as polymer electrolyte fuel cells...

Limited Potential Uses.
April 1, 2006... Ceramic reactors, which can electrochemically transfer mass and energy with high efficiency, can be applied to various applications such as SOFCs, and gas-purification filters for environmental pollutants. In particular, SOFC can exhibit high...

Micro Tubular Break-though.
April 1, 2006... AIST has successfully developed a high efficient micro tubular SOFC of millimeters to sub-millimeters in diameter (Fig. 1), which can solve the thermal distortion problem by such miniaturization of SOFC. The ceria based materials which enable...

The Takeaway.
April 1, 2006... * A leading Japanese R&D center has succeeded in the fabrication of a micro tubular solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) of millimeters to sub-millimeters in diameter that can operate at temperatures between 500 and 600 degrees C, meaning they can be...

What is NEDO?
April 1, 2006... It's Japan's largest public R&D management organization for promoting the development of advanced industrial, environmental, new energy and energy conservation technologies. R&D budget for the most recently completed fiscal year was $149...

Who'a Who in Ceramics Ceramic-powered electric vehicle Prototypes 12 to 24 months off.
April 1, 2006... Altair Nanotechnologies of Reno, NV, recently tested its first batch of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, using the company's nanostructured advanced ceramic electrode materials. "Testing has revealed that they perform at minus 22 degrees...

((BRIEFS)) FINANCIAL.
April 1, 2006... Intermagnetics Net Up 14%. Intermagnetics General Corp., Latham, NY, reported that third-quarter normalized net income from operations increased 14 percent to $8.2 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, from $7.3 million, or $0.17 per diluted...

FINANCIAL.
April 1, 2006... 3M Outlook Brightens. 3M expects first-quarter, local-currency sales growth and earnings per share to be higher than previously indicated. For the first quarter ended March 31, the company anticipates organic local-currency sales growth of...

PRODUCTION Blasch Introduces Ceramic Filters, Net-Shape Parts.
April 1, 2006... A new line of high-performance, competitively priced ceramic foam filters (designed for filtering impurities from liquid metals) has been introduced by Blasch Precision Ceramics of Albany, NY. Blasch's new Cleen-Flo filters are available in...

Ceramic Disk is Key To Optimized Combustion.
April 1, 2006... Siemens VDO of Auburn Hills, MI, and Federal-Mogul Corp. of Southfield, MI, have jointly developed the Glow Plug Integrated Pressure Sensor (GPPS), a next generation clean diesel product designed to optimize the combustion process in light,...

Ceramic Armor Plays Role in Tape Media.
April 1, 2006... Maxell Corp.of America will begin offering branded DLTape S4 media product in June 2006. Maxell jointly developed the media with Quantum to support the data recording requirements of Quantum's DLT-S4 tape drives. The new Maxell DLTtape S4...

Recent Patents Lithography Scanning Patent No.: 7,009,359.
April 1, 2006... Inventor: del Puerto; Santiago E. (Milton, NY) Assignee: ASML Holding N.V. (Veldhoven, NL) Abstract: A foam core chuck for use in a scanning stage of a lithography system is disclosed. In accordance with an embodiment of the present...

Joining of advanced materials.
April 1, 2006... Inventors: Goretta; Kenneth C. (Downers Grove, IL); Routbort; Jules L. (Hinsdale, IL); Gutierrez-Mora; Felipe (Woodridge, IL) Assignee: University of Chicago (Chicago, IL) Abstract: A method for utilizing superplastic deformation with or...

Impregnated fiber strands.
April 1, 2006... Inventors: Lawton; Ernest L. (Clemmons, NC); Velpari; Vedagiri (Monroeville, PA); Rice; William B. (Clemmons, NC); Robertson; Walter J. (Pittsburgh, PA); Novich; Bruce E. (Barrington, RI); Wu; Xiang (Littleton, CO); Lammon-Hilinski; Kami...

OPTICAL MATERIALS Corning Re-Ups with Sharp, Hikes Capacity.
April 1, 2006... Corning's board of directors approved a capital expenditure plan of $174 million to further expand its Generation (Gen) 8 size liquid crystal display (LCD) glass substrates manufacturing capacity at its facility in Shizuoka, Japan. The company...

ENERGY Ceramic Regenerator Gets Financial Boost.
April 1, 2006... Wilson TurboPower of Woburn, MA, obtained $815,000 financing provided by current individual investors who have funded the company since inception. WTPI announced earlier this year that it had achieved a breakthrough in industrial heat...

Recent Patents Thermal spray compositions for abradable seals.
April 1, 2006... Inventors: Fiala; Petr (Edmonton, CA); Chilkowich; Anthony Peter (Fort Saskatchewan, CA); Hajmrle; Karel (Edmonton, CA) Assignee: Sulzer Metco (Canada) Inc. (Fort Saskatchewan, CA) A thermal spray composition and method of deposition for...

Ceramic exhaust filter.
April 1, 2006... Inventors: Alward; Gordon S. (Palm Dessert, CA); DiChiara, Jr.; Robert A. (Carlsbad, CA) Assignee: GEO2 Technologies, Inc. (Weston, MA) Abstract: An improved, efficient, and regenerable exhaust emission filter and filter system are...

ELECTRONICS Two Team Up For Integrated Modules.
April 1, 2006... Semikron International, a leader in diode/thyristor power modules and expert in power module packaging, and STMicroelectronics, a leader in power semiconductors, are teaming up to develop and deliver integrated power modules for industrial,...

Micrel IC Targets Cell Phones, PDAs.
April 1, 2006... Micrel Inc., of San Jose, CA, launched the MIC2800, a flexible power management IC that provides three output voltages and a power on reset in a tiny 3mm x 3mm MLF(R)-16 package. Key markets are cell phones, smart phones, PDAs, cameras,...

Ceramic Printer Heads Boost Print Quality.
April 1, 2006... New ceramic injection molded printer heads allow for a density of 3,900 print nozzles for a new Hewlett-Packard printer. As a result HP has been able to improve print quality and speed to create its fastest printing products. Morgan Advanced...

Recent Patents Small form factor transceiver.
April 1, 2006... Inventors: Aronson; Lewis B. (Los Altos, CA); Giaretta; Giorgio (Mountain View, CA); Schiaffino; Stefano (Menlo Park, CA); Kumar; Dev E. (San Jose, CA); Mason; T. G. Beck (San Jose, CA) Assignee: Finisar Corp. (Sunnyvale, CA) Abstract:...

NANOMATERIALS NMT Opens R&D Facility in Singapore.
April 1, 2006... Singapore-based NanoMaterials Technology Pte Ltd , a company that develops and commercializes production technologies for nanomaterials, opened a $1.54 million facility. NMT has also developed electronic materials for use in multi-layer ceramic...

INDUSTRY NEWS Lamina CEO Will Leave To Advance LED Engines.
April 1, 2006... Taylor Adair, CEO of Lamina Ceramics, a manufacturer of solid-state light sources, is leaving the company this summer to found a new solid state lighting venture. The announcement was made jointly by Adair and company board chairman Greg...

Spectrum Slates Ceramic Production Resumption.
April 1, 2006... Spectrum Control, a manufacturer of electronic control products and systems, announced it has received the governmental permits necessary to commence production at its new ceramic manufacturing facility in State College, PA. Dick...

New Mine Planned for British Columbia.
April 1, 2006... The Emgold Mining Corp. plans a staged development of a gold mining and ceramics production operation on a scale of up to 2,400 tons per day in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Included in the applications are the dewatering of the...

CALENDAR.
April 1, 2006... May 15-19, ACHEMA 2006, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. www.achema.de May 16-19, 2006 Ceramitec 2006, 10th Intl. Trade Fair for Machinery, Equipment, Plant, Processes & Raw Materials for Ceramics and Powder Metallurgy - New Munich Trade Fair...

((BRIEFS)) RESEARCH.
April 1, 2006... Nano pilot plant. The New York State office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) presented a check for $1.8 million to the Alfred University Center for Advanced Ceramic Technology (CACT) and Clarkson University's Center for...

COMPANIES.
April 1, 2006... Carbo Dividend. Carbo Ceramics Inc. declared a dividend of $0.10 per share to shareholders of record on April 28, 2006. Carbo Ceramics Inc. is a leading manufacturer of ceramic proppants for use in the hydraulic fracturing of natural gas and...

PEOPLE.
April 1, 2006... New Carbo GM. Dmitry Petukhov is now general manager/director of Carbo Ceramics Eurasia. He takes over leadership of finance & administration functions. He is also negotiating with ore and natural gas suppliers to finalize our long-term...

TECHNOLOGY INSIGHT Piezo Ceramic Fibers Create 'Super Transducers'.
April 1, 2006... By Richard Cass, Farhad Mohammadi, Steve Leschin of Advanced Cerametrics, PO Box 128, Lambertville, NJ 08530. Tel: 800-261-1208. www.advancedcerametrics.com Recent advances in low power electronics have generated tremendous interest and...

Piezo Advantages.
April 1, 2006... Piezoelectric fibers take full advantage of this phenomenon because of their shape. For example, power for RFID tags is provided by the motions of the component that the tag is attached to/embedded in. ACI is producing piezoelectric fiber...

Energy Harvesting.
April 1, 2006... Energy harvesting (EH), sometimes referred to as energy scavenging, has gained tremendous attention as a means to lessen or eliminate the need for battery power. Novel approaches have been available to generate power by utilizing energy from...

Convergence.
April 1, 2006... Conventional piezoelectric ceramic materials are rigid, heavy, and produced in block form. A low-cost technology termed the Viscous Suspension Spinning Process (VSSP), can produce fibers that range in diameter from 10 microns to 250 microns....

Low Cost Renewable.
April 1, 2006... A low-cost, renewable energy source is critical to ubiquitous deployment of WSNs. After all, who wants to have to change thousands of batteries? New piezo-electric fiber based energy harvesters, will in some cases, obviate the need for...

TECHNOLOGY Q&A Injection Molding is a Hot Process.
April 1, 2006... One of the hottest areas in ceramics is injection molding. The number of molders is growing at 20% a year, according to German machine manufacturer Arburg. Capabilities to mold micro ceramic parts are particularly impressive and have...