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The Washington Technology Center (WTC) has been awarded a grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the central research and development arm of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), to launch a new nanolithography research and development program in Washington.
WTC will be applying the $863,000 financial award towards developing repeatable and robust micro and nano-scale lithographic processes in the agency’s Microfabrication Laboratory. Specifically, the grant will be used to develop a cost-effective nano patterning process that will be prototyped and tested for scalability and price-point economy at an industry-standard level. The initiative will officially launch in July 2006, and over the course of three years will develop, evolve and roll-out this process to the research and business community.
Nanolithography was identified through the Washington Nanotechnology Initiative as a critical process for Washington technology companies looking to introduce new products to market built on the foundation of nano-scale technologies. It is also a natural fit with Washington’s existing strengths in micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), and provides a springboard for Northwest companies to gain a competitive edge in nanotechnology.
The WNI is a cumulative effort by Washington’s technology leaders, led by the Washington Technology Center, to position our state as a global leader in nanotechnology research and development and help our leading industries capture a significant share of the global nanotech market.
A large portion of the estimated $1 trillion in sales of nanotechnology-based products over the next decade could come directly from Washington companies. DARPA supports projects and initiatives where the research and technology payoff is high with respect to amplifying military operations and missions. Nanolithography is a critical component in defense applications, but also has significant commercial value. Many of Washington’s dominant and emerging industries including life sciences, energy, manufacturing, electronics and agriculture, will directly benefit from nanolithography process development.
Current technologies that rely on nanolithography include fuel cells, drug-delivery devices, microelectronics and photonics. This minute-scale manipulation opens up new doors for engineers to exponentially improve the performance of multiple products revolutionizing how the world experiences everything from drug delivery to hand-held devices to sporting equipment.
Nanotechnology promises to follow microelectronics in that commercial adoption will be driven by price and manufacturability. Robust, reliable nano-scale processes will be the benchmark for performance and economy of scale in medical devices, energy systems and materials-based products. Nanolithography is the technology that is driving this so called ‘top down’ demand. The work proposed by WTC will advance these processes to the quality and volume required for commercial use.
WTC’s Microfab Lab is the largest public user facility of its kind in the Pacific Northwest. The lab’s symbiotic business model embraces the WTC’s mission of supporting entrepreneurship and innovation, and is dedicated to helping early-stage companies and academic researchers develop and prototype next generation micro and nano-dependent devices and applications. The facility will serve as both the test bed for this process development and the catalyst to transition this nanolithography process from the lab to large-scale industrial applications.
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