ASU gets $1.3 million grant for futuristic ion beam device
Summary:
In pursuit of a new wave of nanotech prospects, Arizona State University recently purchased an ion mill worth $1.3 million with the help of a National Science Foundation grant.
Full Story:
In pursuit of a new wave of nanotech prospects, Arizona State University recently purchased an ion mill worth $1.3 million with the help of a National Science Foundation grant. The Focused Ion Beam System, normally market-priced for major semiconductor companies, will be housed at the university and available not only to university researchers but to private research and start-up companies per a stipulation in the grant.
Experts involved in the grant, which was jointly awarded to departments within the ASU engineering and life sciences colleges, say that its mandate to allow other companies to use the machine at an hourly rate is very much in line with the spirit of collaboration between biotech researchers and engineers that has characterized the last few years of rapid industry growth in Arizona.
"This funding is a step ahead of many grant approaches because it acknowledges that nanoscale construction has implications across many scientific disciplines," said George Poste, director of the Biodesign Institute at ASU. "By putting this into ASU's multidisciplinary scientific environment, many researchers benefit."
According to the Arizona Republic, users of the Focused Ion Beam will most likely include the spin-off company Nanobiomics, a for-profit spawned last year by ASU and the Translational Genomics Research Institute. Nanobiomics would use the device, which is like a molecular sculpting tool, to make smaller versions of lab equipment. And researchers from the Center for Single Molecule Biophysics at the Biodesign Institute will be able to map the electrical and chemical surface activity of cells. The ASU/Army Flexible Display project, spawned by a $43 million grant earlier this year to design flexible battlefield computer screens, will also benefit from the new machine.
"It's very fast, and it allows unlimited possibilities for developing structures for use in many areas of science," said Stuart Lindsay, director of the Center for Single Molecule Biophysics.
Lindsay told the Republic that a video link might be installed, which would allow visitors of the Arizona Science Center to watch the ion beam in action.
For more information:
"Ion mill big coup for ASU," Arizona Republic, 09/02/2004