Silverchair to provide hosting for ASM’s online materials information resources
May 18, 2018 Source: ASM International
Silverchair Information Systems, Charlottesville, Va., announces a partnership with ASM International, Cleveland, to develop a unified hosting solution for ASM’s authoritative materials information resources.
Continue readingJapanese researchers discover 16 million tons of rare-earth deposits in deep-sea mud
April 12, 2018 Source: ASM International
Several Japanese universities, research groups, and government agencies published an article in the April 10 edition of the online journal Scientific Reports describing results of their analysis of the rare-earth metals they discovered in deep-sea mud near Japan back in 2013.
Continue readingCarpenter to invest $100 million in soft magnetic materials and precision rolling mill
April 1, 2018 Source: ASM International
Carpenter Technology Corp., Philadelphia, announces that it will invest $100 million in soft magnetic materials production and a new precision hot strip rolling mill at its facility in Reading, Pennsylvania, to help meet increasing demand for aerospace, consumer electronics, and electric vehicle manufacturing customers.
Continue readingThermo Scientific develops automated, robust, compact UV-Vis spectrophotometers
February 6, 2018 Source: ASM International
Thermo Scientific, Madison, Wis., introduces the Genesys family of automated, robust UV-Visible spectrophotometers, which are accessible, network-ready, and designed to meet expectations for advanced technology in a compact package.
Continue readingConcentrations of rare earth elements >300 ppm found in American coal basins
November 30, 2017 Source: ASM International
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, Pittsburgh, reports that its engineers have found high rare earth element concentrations in coal samples taken from the Illinois, Northern Appalachian, Central Appalachian, Rocky Mountain Coal Basins, and the Pennsylvania Anthracite region.
Continue readingDepartment of Energy awards $4 million for projects to extract rare earths from coal
October 1, 2017 Source:
The Department of Energy, Washington, has announced nine projects that will receive approximately $4 million in cost-shared federal funding to improve the technical, environmental, and economic performance of new and existing technologies that extract, separate, and recover rare earth elements from domestic U.S. coal and coal byproducts.
The development of an economically competitive supply of REEs will help to maintain the nation's economic growth and national security. Vast domestic coal resources in the United States contain quantities of REEs that offer the potential to reduce dependence on others for these critical materials, and create new industries in regions where coal plays an important economic role.
The new projects will be managed by the National Energy Technology Laboratory and are supported through the funding opportunity announcement, Development of Transformational Separation and Extraction Processes for Production of Rare Earth Element (REE) Materials from Domestic U.S. Coal and Coal By-Products.
Selected projects fall under three Areas of Interest.
Area of Interest 1—Advanced, Novel Technology Development for Initial REE Extraction, Concentrating to ≥2 Weight Percent
Area of Interest 2—Optimization of Current State-of-the-Art Separation Technologies for Initial REE Extraction, Concentrating to ≥2‒10 Weight Percent
Area of Interest 3—Technology Advancements for High Purity REE Extractions, Concentrating to 90.0–99.99 Weight Percent
The nine projects:
Concentrating Rare Earth Elements in Acid Mine Drainage using Coal Combustion By-Products— The Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio)
Low-Cost Rare Earth Element (REE) Recovery from Acid Mine Drainage Sludge— Research Triangle Institute (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina)
Low-Temperature Plasma Treatment for Enhanced Recovery of Highly Valued Critical REEs from Coal— University of Kentucky Research Foundation (Lexington, Kentucky)
Economic Extraction and Recovery of REEs and Production of Clean Value-Added Products from Low-Rank Coal Fly Ash— The University of North Dakota (Grand Forks, North Dakota)
Development of a Cost-Effective Extraction Process for the Recovery of Heavy and Critical Rare Earth Elements from the Clays and Shales Associated with Coal— Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Blacksburg, Virginia)
Economic Extraction, Recovery, and Upgrading of Rare Earth Elements from Coal-Based Resources— The University of Utah (Salt Lake City, Utah)
Coupled Hydrothermal Extraction and Ligand-Associated Organosilica Media Recovery of REEs from Coal Fly Ash— Wayne State University (Detroit, Michigan)
Recovery of High Purity Rare Earth Elements (REEs) from Coal Ash via a Novel Electrowinning Process— Battelle Memorial Institute (Columbus, Ohio)
At-source Recovery of Rare Earth Elements from Coal Mine Drainage— West Virginia University Research Corporation (Morgantown, West Virginia)
The Department of Energy, Washington, has announced nine projects that will receive approximately $4 million in cost-shared federal funding to improve the technical, environmental, and economic performance of new and existing technologies that extract, separate, and recover rare earth elements from domestic U.S. coal and coal byproducts.
Continue readingUltratech dual-beam laser spike anneal systems to treat FinFET for 10-nm nodes
May 21, 2017 Source:
Ultratech Inc., San Jose, Calif., announces that it has received a multiple system follow-on order for its LSA101 dual-beam laser spike anneal (LSA) systems. Ultratech's millisecond anneal systems will be used by its customer for expansion of 10-nm FinFET production.
The key differentiators over competing tools, and the basis for choosing Ultratech's LSA101 dual-beam systems, are its annealing capability with a low overall thermal budget, and the flexibility and extendability for use with existing and future nodes. Ultratech plans to ship the first LSA101 system in 2Q17 and the second system in 3Q17 to the customer's facility in Asia.
As the industry scales to smaller dimensions, millisecond anneal technology has continued to enable critical applications around transistor fabrication for multiple annealing steps for the front-end-of-line (FEOL) as well as those in middle-of-line (MOL). Ultratech's global customers have benefitted from the extendability of the LSA systems across multiple production nodes including both planar and FinFET technologies.
This existing customer selected Ultratech's LSA101 dual-beam system for expansion because of its low thermal budget capability, which is a key differentiator from other millisecond anneal tools, and is an enabler for advanced processing steps beyond the FEOL.
LSA101 with the dual-beam option expands the process space by adding a second low-power laser beam that adds process flexibility and enables millisecond annealing with a low thermal budget process and is built on the customizable Unity Platformâ„¢. Inserting a millisecond anneal step post-junction formation, such as gate stack formation, silicide or post-silicide anneal, has been shown to improve leakage and device reliability, while reducing contact resistance and improving both performance and yield. Compared to competÂing millisecond annealing technologies, LSA with dual-beam offers the lowest thermal budget millisecond anneal process, along with superior within-die uniformity for different layouts. The LSA101 delivers high flexibility and extendability for advanced annealing applications, and is currently in high-volume production for planar and FinFET logic devices.
Ultratech Inc., San Jose, Calif., announces that it has received a multiple system follow-on order for its LSA101 dual-beam laser spike anneal systems for expansion of 10-nm FinFET production.
Continue readingSolar Manufacturing designs vacuum furnace to process mu-metal shields
March 1, 2017 Source:
Solar Manufacturing, Souderton, Pa., has completed a new Model HFL-5772-EQ vacuum furnace specially designed by Solar for processing mu-metal shields at Magnetic Shields Ltd. for electronic applications. Mu-metal is a nickel-iron soft magnetic alloy with very high permeability suitable for sensitive electronic equipment shielding. The new furnace, with hot-zone dimensions 36x36x72 inches, will operate in partial pressure hydrogen or high vacuum in the 10-5 Torr range.
The furnace has full CE rating to the strict European code. The furnace incorporates the new SolarVac 5000 electronic controls with touchscreen overview programming. SolarVac 5000 enables precise temperature control from ambient to 2400°F, then down through the critical order-disorder transformation range for mu-metals, and finally to the nitrogen fan blower quench, to ambient.
According to Magnetic Shields CEO Colin Woolger, "High vacuum performance is also provided for nickel brazing of complex mu-metal assemblies." Magnetic Shields is the largest supplier of this type of electrical shielding in Europe, as well as worldwide..
"The furnace design is based on Magnetic Shields' years of mu-metal heat treating experience," says William R. Jones, CEO of Solar Atmospheres. "It allows for minimum furnace power loss and minimum hydrogen consumption."
Solar Manufacturing, Souderton, Pa., has completed a new Model HFL-5772-EQ vacuum furnace specially designed by Solar for processing mu-metal shields at Magnetic Shields Ltd. for electronic applications.
Continue readingUltralight auto door made of aluminum, polymers, and electronic latch system
January 17, 2017 Source:
Magna International Inc., Troy, Mich., in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy and partners FCA US and Grupo Antolin, announces that the team has developed an ultralight door that achieves the project objective of 42.5% mass savings over an average current production door. This was developed in less than ten months, while keeping the cost within accepted industry parameters and providing a solution that applies to approximately 70% of the light vehicle market.
Magna built on its know-how from the development of the Multi-Material Lightweight Vehicle (MMLV) with the DOE and Ford in 2014, and took it a step further in creating a solution for this advanced ultralight door project.
A key innovation includes integration of Magna's SmartLatch electronic latch system. This eliminated the need for mechanical hardware and enabled the development of a unique carrier module with integrated glass guides and lift capability of a lightweight hybrid glass laminate, an industry first.
The door-in-white assembly makes extensive use of aluminum, which achieves approximately half of the total mass reduction of the door assembly. Overall, the project makes use of materials readily available today that can easily be made using existing manufacturing processes, without a significant increase in production costs or changes in body-shop infrastructure.
Grupo Antolin contributed its know-how in the design and manufacture of interior trim components to contribute to the significant mass reduction. The application of advanced molding technologies and polymers contributed approximately 7% to the total mass reduction.
The ultralight door development included intensive simulation efforts, passing all safety and durability testing in the process. The next steps include manufacturing full-scale prototype door assemblies, performance tests and safety tests to validate the design, with the goal of being available for use in production vehicles by the fall of 2020.
Magna International Inc., Troy, Mich., in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy and partners FCA US and Grupo Antolin, announces that the team has developed an ultralight auto door that achieves the project objective of 42.5% mass savings over an average current production door.
Continue readingSiemens to acquire Mentor Graphics for its electronics IC and systems design
November 14, 2016 Source:
Siemens AG, Munich, and Mentor Graphics, Wilsonville, Ore., announce that they have entered into a merger agreement under which Siemens will acquire Mentor for $37.25 per share in cash, which represents an enterprise value of $4.5 billion. The offer price represents a 21% premium to Mentor's closing price on November 11, 2016, the last trading day prior to the announcement.
This acquisition decisively extends Siemens' leading Digital Enterprise Software portfolio with Mentor's well established electronics IC and systems design, simulation, and manufacturing solutions. These capabilities are essential for today's smart connected products such as autonomous vehicles. The combination provides mechanical, thermal, electronic and embedded software tools which will allow Siemens' customers to further accelerate their innovation, drive production efficiencies, and optimize the operation of their products in the field. Now, for the first time, quality, efficiency, flexibility, safety and speed can be optimized across technical domains, throughout the entire lifecycle and for the entire extended enterprise.
"Siemens is acquiring Mentor as part of its Vision 2020 concept to be the Benchmark for the New Industrial Age. It's a perfect portfolio fit to further expand our digital leadership and set the pace in the industry," said Joe Kaeser, President and CEO of Siemens AG.
"With Mentor, we're acquiring an established technology leader with a talented employee base that will allow us to supplement our world-class industrial software portfolio. It will complement our strong offering in mechanics and software with design, test and simulation of electrical and electronic systems," said Klaus Helmrich, member of the Managing Board of Siemens.
"Combining Mentor's technology leadership and deep customer relationships with Siemens' global scale and resources will better enable us to serve the growing needs of our customers, and unlock additional significant opportunities for our employees," said Walden C. Rhines, chairman and CEO of Mentor. "Siemens is an ideal partner with financial depth and stability, and their resources and additional investment will allow us to innovate even faster and accelerate our vision of creating top-to-bottom automated design solutions for electronic systems.
Siemens AG, Munich, and Mentor Graphics, Wilsonville, Ore., announce that they have entered into a merger agreement under which Siemens will acquire Mentor for its electronics IC and systems design, simulation, and manufacturing solutions.
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