High Tech Ceramics News articles from December 2003

High Tech Ceramics News archives from December 2003

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS: Nanomaterials to Impact Nanoelectronics.
December 1, 2003... For decades, progress in microelectronics has relied on the continued miniaturization of the devices and wiring on silicon wafers to increase the processing power and memory density of computer chips. As device dimensions are scaled into the...

PROCESSING AND TECHNOLOGIES MAC Offers QuickMetz Solutions.
December 1, 2003... Morgan Advanced Ceramics (MAC), a world-leading supplier of innovative ceramic solutions for the medical, telecommunications, semiconductor, and aerospace markets, offers QuickMetz, a service for the quick delivery of low-volume metalized...

METROLOGY AND ANALYSIS: Keithley, Zyvex in Collaboration.
December 1, 2003... Keithley Instruments, Inc. and Zyvex Corp. have signed an agreement to work together to develop new solutions for the nanotech marketplace. The agreement calls for the companies to share marketing, sales, and applications engineering resources...

STRUCTURAL CERAMICS: Ceradyne Receives SAPI Armor Award.
December 1, 2003... Ceradyne, Inc. (Nasdaq: CRDN) HAS announced the receipt of an additional order of $21.3 million for small arms protective inserts (SAPI) for delivery in 2004. This order is an increase to the multiyear SAPI contract announced on September 29,...

Heat-Resistant Defense Material.
December 1, 2003... Two University of Missouri-Rolla researchers are working to better prepare the military against attacks by improving the materials for missile components such as nozzles. Greg Hilmas, assistant professor of ceramic engineering, and Bill...

POWDERS AND NANOCERAMICS President Bush Signs Nano Bill.
December 1, 2003... President Bush signed the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research & Development Act (S.189) on December 3, 2003. The bill will provide $3.67 billion over the next 4 years starting in FY 2005 for programs accelerating R&D of new nanoscale...

Method for Nano Products.
December 1, 2003... A research team led by engineers at Purdue University and physicists at the University of Chicago has made a discovery about the formation of drops that could lead to new methods for making threads, wires, and particles only a few nanometers...

Large Surface Area Zirconia Synthesized.
December 1, 2003... Researchers from Thailand (P. Praserthdam, S. Kongwudthiti, Chulalongkorn University; W. Tanakulrungsank, Rajamagala Institute of Technology) and Japan (M. Ingue, Kyoito University) synthesized silica-modified zirconia was by the reaction of...

ABRASIVE PRODUCTS: Grinding Center Reaches Milestone.
December 1, 2003... Ten years ago, Saint-Gobains Higgins Grinding Technology Center (HGTC) was started as a research facility largely focused on precision grinding applications using bonded abrasives. After a decade of service, the HGTC claims to have the...

COATINGS: American Roller Gets Plasma Coatings.
December 1, 2003... American Roller Co., a Union Grove, Wisconsinbased roller manufacturer, has acquired Plasma Coatings, Inc., a manufacturer of thermal and release coatings. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. This is the second major acquisition by...

FIBERS AND COMPOSITES: Functional Ceramics from Polycarbosilane.
December 1, 2003... A research team at Ube Industries, Ltd. used a polycarbosilane on the basis of Ubes precursor process to develop several kinds of functional ceramics; for example, Tyranno-sintered SiC(Al) fiber (SA fiber) with excellent heat-resistance...

DIAMOND PRODUCTS: Highest Frequency Diamond Semiconductors.
December 1, 2003... Recently, communication capacity has drastically increased; there is therefore a demand for high-frequency high-power electronic devices that can operate at high frequencies. A portable telephone needs only approximately 1 W at 1.5 GHz, but...

ADVANCED GLASSESS: TFT-LCD Production Complex Initiated.
December 1, 2003... Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the worlds largest provider of TFT-LCD display panels, has announced the groundbreaking of its new FT-LCD production complex at Tangjeong, in ChungCheongNam-Do, Korea. This site is the worlds largest TFT-LCD...

OPTICAL MATERIALS: Corning to Make Kepler Mirror.
December 1, 2003... Corning, Inc. announced that it will play a key role in the manufacturing of the photometer, a device that measures the brightness of light, for NASAs Kepler Mission to detect Earth- like planets orbiting stars beyond our solar system. Corning...

BIOCERAMICS: Sugar Coating Enhances Stability.
December 1, 2003... Gum arabic (GA) is a water-soluble exudate from the acacia tree that contains a complex mixture of polysaccharides, proteins, and glycoproteins. GA has been used in many different applications ranging from stabilizing colloidal carbon particles...

FUEL CELLS AND BATTERIES Team on Fuel Cell Research.
December 1, 2003... The Department of Energys Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and NASAs Glenn Research Center have agreed to collaborate in solving one of the toughest technical challenges to the development of advanced solid oxide fuel cells. The two...

FILTERS AND MEMBRANES: Helping Diesels Meet NOx Deadlines.
December 1, 2003... A new catalyst could help automakers meet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys deadline to eliminate 95% of nitrogen-oxide from diesel engine exhausts by 2007, while saving energy. Developed by the U.S. Department of Energys Argonne...

ELECTRONIC CERAMICS: Improved 2-Inch GaN Substrates.
December 1, 2003... ATMI, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATMI), a supplier of materials to the worlds leading semiconductor manufacturers, has announced commercial sales of improved 2-inch diameter and smaller gallium nitride (GaN) substrates. The new free-standing GaN substrate...

AVX Corp. to Reorganize.
December 1, 2003... AVX Corp. (NYSE: AVX) has announced its intention, effective the January 1, 2004, to establish new wholly owned subsidiaries, to be called Kyocera Electronic Devices (KED), which will focus exclusively on the design, marketing, and sale of...

3M Material Hikes Capacitance.
December 1, 2003... An innovative new laminate material from 3M lets designers and manufacturers of high-speed digital printed circuit boards achieve higher speeds while simplifying design tradeoffs. When used as power and ground layers in a multilayer PCB,...

Bridgestone Entering SiC Wafer Production.
December 1, 2003... The global tire producer Bridgestone Corp. said that it plans to enter the semiconductor wafer market as it has completed the development of a high-quality silicon carbide, or SiC, wafer material. The Japanese tire maker said it will aim to...

SUPERCONDUCTORS: Transmission Grid Stabilization Product.
December 1, 2003... American Superconductor Corp. announced that it has delivered to the Tennessee Valley Authority the first SuperVAR dynamic synchronous condensera new, breakthrough product that stabilizes grid voltages and increases service reliability, as well...

ISCO Announces Commercial Sales.
December 1, 2003... ISCO International, Inc. (Amex: ISO), a leading supplier of interference-control solutions for the wireless telecommunications industry, announced the first commercial sales of its new RF(2) product line. According to Amr Abdelmonem, chief...

INDUSTRY NEWS: Sulzer Metco Expands Materials Business.
December 1, 2003... Subject to anti-trust board approval, Sulzer Metco is acquiring WOKA GmbH, a family-owned carbides manufacturer with 70 employees and sales totaling about CHF 20 million (EUR 14 million) for 2002. This step widens the Sulzer Metco offering of...

Companies Report Quarterly Results.
December 1, 2003... Ceramics Process Systems announced net income of $7 thousand or $0.00 per basic and diluted common share, on revenue of $868 thousand for the fiscal quarter ended September 28, 2003. This compares with a net loss of $(362) thousand, or $(0.03)...

CALENDAR.
December 1, 2003... January 25-30, 2004. 28th Annual International Conference & Exposition on Advanced Ceramics & Composites and 8th International Symposium on Ceramics in Energy Storage and Power Conversion Systems, Doubletree and Hilton Hotels, Cocoa Beach, FL....