High Tech Ceramics News articles from March 2004

High Tech Ceramics News archives from March 2004

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS: Friction Products Top $6.8 Billion.
March 1, 2004... Friction products have been used for over 100 years with the rise of the automobile providing a burgeoning market for these materials. Indeed, many of the leading friction materials firms can trace their lineage back to this period. When the...

PROCESSING AND TECHNOLOGIES ZIRCAR Intros Silica Insulation.
March 1, 2004... ZIRCAR Ceramics, Inc., of Florida, NY has introduced its new MICROSIL Microporous Silica Thermal Insulation. Unique to MICROSILs microporous structure is its low density which minimizes conductive heat transfer and its billions of nano- pockets...

METROLOGY AND ANALYSIS: Portable XRF Analyzer Available.
March 1, 2004... Innov-X Systems, Inc. recently introduced its new generation of portable x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzers, which deliver fast and precise identification and analysis of the most challenging metal alloys. It is designed as a point and shoot...

MKS Introduces Vacuum Transducer.
March 1, 2004... MKS Instruments, Inc. (Nasdaq: MKSI), a leading provider of process control technologies for improving productivity in semiconductor and other advanced manufacturing process environments, has introduced the HPS Series 901 Plus (901P) Loadlock...

STRUCTURAL CERAMICS: Armor Plates for U.S. Troops.
March 1, 2004... Some U.S. soldiers owe their lives to KEVLAR synthetic fiber vests reinforced with ceramic body armor plates. Saint-Gobain Ceramics recently finalized a multi-million-dollar contract to supply 38,000 ceramic plates to a major armor integrator...

New Contracts for Armor Holdings.
March 1, 2004... Armor Holdings, Inc. announced that it has executed a new contract to provide hard armoring for transport vehicles and HMMWVs (High Mobility Multi Wheeled Vehicle or Humvee). All work is expected to be completed in the current year. The new...

POWDERS AND NANO CERAMICS Nanopowders from Plasma Spraying.
March 1, 2004... Rutgers University researches S. Balasubramanian, R.K. Sadangi, V. Shukla, B.H. Kear, and D.E. Niesz investigated the feasibility of fabricating transparent Al2O3-AlON nanocomposites by plasma spraying. Commercially available Al2O3 and AlN...

Penn Researchers Align Nanotubes.
March 1, 2004... Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have devised a new method for aligning isolated single wall carbon nanotubes and, in the process, have created a new kind of material with liquid crystal-like properties, which they call nematic...

COATINGS: Better Thermal Insulator Coating.
March 1, 2004... Heat may be essential for life, but in some casessuch as protecting the space shuttle or improving the efficiency of a jet enginematerials with low thermal conductivities are needed to prevent passage of too much heat. As reported in the...

ADVANCED GLASSES: Corning Intros New Optical Fibers.
March 1, 2004... Corning, Inc. has introduced a new standard single-mode fiber that handles twice the launch power of other ITU-T G.652 fibers, addressing a key technical barrier facing converged voice, video and data services networks (also known as triple...

Asahi Glass Expands in LCD Materials.
March 1, 2004... Asahi Glass Co., Ltd has decided to increase its production capacity of large-sized glass for glass substrates used in TFT-LCD panels. The company will construct an additional glass furnace and two polishing lines in Taiwan for large-sized...

OPTICAL MATERIALS: Corning Intros Enhanced Photonic Materials.
March 1, 2004... The Photonic Materials business of Corning Incorporated (NYSE: GLW) has introduced new and enhanced products at the 2004 Optical Fiber Communications Conference, held February 2004 in Los Angeles, California. Through this improved product line,...

BU Opens Optics Lab.
March 1, 2004... The Photonics Center at Boston University has officially opened its new Integrated Optics Lab. The mission of the new laboratory is to facilitate hybrid integration, device characterization, and measurement of active and passive photonics...

FILTERS AND MEMBRANES: Ceramic Membrane Extracts Hydrogen.
March 1, 2004... If hydrogen fuel cells are ever to replace gasoline engines in cars, they will need a cheap source of highly pure hydrogen?and Argonne technology could provide one. A team of ceramics experts in Argonnes Energy Technology Division has developed...

FUEL CELLS: SOFC Reaches Major Milestone.
March 1, 2004... A five-kilowatt solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) undergoing testing in Fairbanks, Alaska, has reached the 5,000-hour milestone since its start-up eight months ago. During each hour of operation the fuel cell produces approximately 4KW of...

ELECTRONIC CERAMICS: Siliconix Introduces New MOSFET.
March 1, 2004... Siliconix inc., an 80.4% owned subsidiary of Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (NYSE: VSH), has announced a new high-speed, half-bridge, n-channel MOSFET driver IC designed for use in high- frequency, high-current, single- or multiphase dc-to-dc...

Groups to Develop Next Generation Chips.
March 1, 2004... Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany; Genus, Inc., Sunnyvale, California; and the U. of Albany Center of Excellence in Nanoelectronics have agreed to a 3-year, $12 million partnership for developing next-generation memory chip devices....

Cabots STI Slurry Adopted.
March 1, 2004... Cabot Microelectronics Corp., the leading supplier of chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) polishing slurries to the semiconductor industry, has announced that its new direct shallow trench isolation (STI) slurry, SiLECT 6000 in combination...

CTS to Supply Manifold Actuators.
March 1, 2004... CTS Corp., a world leader in automotive position sensor and actuator technology, has announced that a major international automotive manufacturer has selected CTS Automotive Products as its sole supplier of active manifold actuators for a new...

Cypress, Silects Develop Low-k Materials.
March 1, 2004... Cypress Semiconductor Corp. and Silecs, Inc. have agreed to collaborate on the development and testing of Silecs novel, non- porous, low-k dielectric materials in certain devices manufactured by Cypress. The key objectives are to improve speed...

SUPERCONDUCTORS: Scientists Create New Form of Matter.
March 1, 2004... Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Colorado claimed to have created a new form of matter and predicted it could help lead to the next generation of superconductors for use in electricity...

AMSCs D-VAR(R) System for Canadian Wind Farm.
March 1, 2004... American Superconductor Corp. (Nasdaq: AMSC), has announced that it is providing its D-VAR (Dynamic Volt- Ampere-Reactive) reactive power compensation system to Canadas largest wind farm developer, Vision Quest Windelectric, a subsidiary of...

INDUSTRY NEWS: United Defense Completes Cercom Purchase.
March 1, 2004... United Defense Industries, Inc. completed the acquisition of Cercom, Inc. of Vista, California, an advanced ceramic materials producer and supplier of light-weight ceramic armor for $21 million. Cercom revenues exceeded $17M in 2003 and are...

Award Goes to Kyocera.
March 1, 2004... Applied Materials, Inc. has given Kyocera, Inc. its 2003 Annual Supplier Quality Award for outstanding and continuous quality improvement in 2003. Kyocera provides ceramic components for Applied Materials semiconductor manufacturing systems....

Alcoa Exits Specialty Chemicals.
March 1, 2004... Alcoa, Inc. has announced that Alcoa World Alumina & Chemicals (AWAC), a global alliance between Alumina Limited (40%), and Alcoa (60%), has completed the sale of Alcoa Specialty Chemicals to two private equity firms led by Rhone Capital, LLC...

PUBLICATIONS: New AcerS Journal Debuts.
March 1, 2004... The American Ceramic Society (ACerS) announced the debut of the premier issue of International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology (ISSN: 1546-542X). This new quarterly periodical provides information on ceramic product development and...

CALENDAR.
March 1, 2004... April 18-21, 2004. 106th Annual Meeting & Exposition of the American Ceramic Society, Marriott and Hyatt Regency Hotels, Indianapolis, IN. Contact: American Ceramic Society, P.O. Box 6136, Westerville, OH 43086-6136; Tel: 614/890-4700, Fax:...