High Tech Ceramics News articles from February 2004

High Tech Ceramics News archives from February 2004

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS: Healthy Growth for Advanced Ceramics.
February 1, 2004... Advanced ceramics encompassing a variety of materials, markets, and applications had a healthy growth in 2003 especially in the structural ceramics area. This was due to the increased demand for ceramic armors for personal protection as well as...

PROCESSING AND TECHNOLOGIES EPSI supplies CIP Production Units.
February 1, 2004... Engineered Pressure Systems, Inc. (EPSI) designs high-pressure systems for manufacturing, testing, research, and specialized high-pressure applications. EPSIs Isostatic presses are used in the manufacture of components for space, aeronautical,...

Annealing Improves Alumina Electrolyte.
February 1, 2004... Researchers at Caltech investigated a pre-operational annealing process as a potential means of preventing a sudden reduction of ionic conductivity in a ?-alumina solid electrolyte (BASE) during use. On the basis of tests described below, the...

METROLOGY AND ANALYSIS: Ceralink Expanding Testing Center.
February 1, 2004... Ceralink, Inc. has been awarded $48,000 from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to be used for building a $100,000 microwave-assist electric furnace. Microwave- assist technology [patent owned by C-Tech...

STRUCTURAL CERAMICS Ceramic Balls for Windmills.
February 1, 2004... Wind energy companies are beginning to realize the advantages of high-performance ceramic hybrid bearings (steel races with ceramic balls), particularly in converting the 30-rpm motion of the wind blades into 2000 rpm of the rotor shaft to...

GE Unit Receives ISO 9001:2000.
February 1, 2004... GE Quartz, Inc. is a world leader in the development and manufacturing of fused quartz materials/products for the semi- conductor, fiber optic, and lighting industries. GE fused quartz materials are ideal for processes requiring elevated...

POWDERS AND NANO CERAMICS Chemists Grow Nano Menagerie.
February 1, 2004... Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories have found a simple way to make tiny, complicated shapes from zinc oxide, including arrays of vertically aligned rods, flat disks, and columns that resemble stacks of coins. The researchers grew the...

Nanophase Commercializes Novel Nanomaterials.
February 1, 2004... Nanophase Technologies Corp. (Nasdaq: NANX), a technology leader in nanomaterials and nanoengineered products, announced commercial availability of a new class of cerium-based oxide nanomaterials from the companys patented NanoArc technology....

LBNL Leaps into the Nanorevolution.
February 1, 2004... Although a late comer, Department of Energys Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is also leaping into the nanorevolution. The laboratory has launched the construction of a six-story, $85 million, 94,500-square-foot research building that will...

COATINGS: New Horizons in Plasma PVD Coating.
February 1, 2004... An entirely new PVD coating system developed by Sulzer Metcos METAPLAS IONON for the Karlsruhe Research Centre, Germany, was recently installed and successfully commissioned at the Research Centres Institute for Material Research. The...

FIBERS AND COMPOSITES Hitco Supplies Fo5 Airbus.
February 1, 2004... HITCO Carbon Composites, Inc., an affiliate of SGL Carbon Group, is a provider of innovative material solutions and composite structures. HITCO recently celebrated the delivery of the first operational ship set of carbon fiber tail structure...

ADVANCED GLASS: Pilkington Introduces Self-Cleaning Glass.
February 1, 2004... Pilkington, PLC has introduced Pilkington Activ SP glass, a self- cleaning, low-E, solar-control, UV-control, sound-absorbing, impact-resistant glass. Pilkington Activ SP glass resolves several issues in a number of niche, but still very...

Glass Capacitors Used in Mars Mission.
February 1, 2004... AVX Corp. recently announced its contribution to the Mars exploration rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which recently drove onto Martian soil. AVX supplied its CYR20 glass-dielectric capacitors in the rovers lift mechanism actuator and lander...

FUEL CELLS: Kyocera Records Highest Efficiency.
February 1, 2004... Kyocera Corp. has announced the achievement of the worlds most efficient power generation of 54% for the 1-kw solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), expected to be the next-generation distributed power generation system for small-scale power sources,...

ELECTRONIC CERAMICS EDO Awarded Sonar Contract.
February 1, 2004... EDO Corp. has been awarded contract options worth $7.6 million by the Naval Sea System Command (NAVSEA) for additional production of SQS-53C sonar arrays for the Arleigh Burke Class of guided missile destroyer and for foreign military sales....

Cree Expands Diode Family.
February 1, 2004... Cree, Inc. announced the addition of two new silicon carbide (SiC) Zero Recovery Schottky diodes to its power device product family: a 300-Volt diode, in both 10-Amp and 20-Amp versions, and a 1,200- Volt diode, also in 10-Amp and 20-Amp...

4-Inch GaN Wafers to Debut in 2004.
February 1, 2004... Kyma Technologies, Inc. (Raleigh, NC) plans to produce 4-inch gallium nitride (GaN) wafers by the end of 2004. These wafers are needed for next-generation optoelectronic and microelectronic technology applications. Ballistic Missile Development...

High Mobility Carbon Nanotubes.
February 1, 2004... University of Maryland physicists claim to have produced semiconducting carbon nanotubes with the highest mobility (conductivity divided by the number of charges) of any known material at room temperature. The researchers, led by Michael...

Chip Researchers See the Light.
February 1, 2004... Two professors from the University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign have developed a new light-emitting transistor that could reshape how optoelectronics and electronic devices are built. A report in the January 5 issue of the journal Applied...

First ICs with Nanotube Transistors.
February 1, 2004... In an important milestone in the fields of nanosciences and nanoengineering, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University are announcing that they have created the first working, integrated silicon circuit that...

Toshiba Package with Thin Chips.
February 1, 2004... Toshiba Corp. has achieved a multi chip package (MCP) with thinner chips. With a 1.4-mm height, the package stacks a total of nine layers of components. Toshiba has achieved this by drawing on the companys advances in process and mounting...

SUPERCONDUCTORS: AMSC Condenser Most Promising.
February 1, 2004... American Superconductor Corps SuperVAR synchronous condenser has been named this years Most Promising Pre-Commercial Technology at the 5th Annual Platts Global Energy Awards ceremony. Held on December 12, 2003, in New York City, the Global...

Record for HTS Magnets.
February 1, 2004... Engineers and scientists at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL) successfully tested an innovative 5 tesla high temperature superconductor (HTS) insert coil in a 20 tesla powered magnet at the laboratory last year. This test...

INDUSTRY NEWS: Carbo Ceramics Announces Expansion.
February 1, 2004... Carbo Ceramics, Inc. has announced that its board of directors has approved the construction of a new manufacturing plant in Wilkinson County, Georgia. The plant is designed to have annual manufacturing capacity of 250 million pounds, an...

Prematech Acquires Assets of Chand Kare.
February 1, 2004... PremaTech, LLC recently acquired the assets of Chand Kare Technical Ceramics, a leader in advanced ceramics machining. Renamed PremaTech Chand Advanced Ceramics, the company will continue operating in Worcester, Massachusetts. PremaTech, LLC,...

Companies Report Quarterly Results.
February 1, 2004... * Corning, Inc. announced that its fourth-quarter sales were $820 million and that it incurred a net loss of $29 million or $0.02 per share. This net loss includes previously announced after-tax charges totaling $81 million or $0.06 per share....

CALENDAR.
February 1, 2004... March 14-18, 2004. TMS 2004, 133rd Annual Meeting and Exposition, Charlotte Convention Center, Charlotte, NC. Contact: TMS, 184 Thorn Hill Rd., Warrendale, PA 15086; Tel: 724/776-9042, Fax: 724/776-3770. April 18-21, 2004. 106th Annual...