LSU News Service FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 30, 1997 Contact Stephen Loy; WORK 504 388-8654 HOME 504 677-8821 Volker Saile WORK 504-388-8887 HOME: 504-766-1809
CAMD entering new phase
BATON ROUGE -- Louisiana State University's Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices will soon host the world's first mass-manufactured product using an x-ray light source.
This landmark event will bring the center from a pure research phase to a product-producing phase, says Volker Saile, director of CAMD.
The research facility is centered on a $20 million light source called a synchrotron radiation device--some liken it to a high-tech light bulb. The extremely focused energy (light) can carve out extremely small devices, so little they are often difficult to see with the naked eye.
MEMStek, located in Vancouver, Wash., wants CAMD to use the x-rays to make tiny micro-pumps and micro-gears. The devices range in size from 50 to 200 microns; a human hair measures 100 microns(SEE PHOTOS)(*SEE PHOTOS).
"Industry is now paying to use CAMD for production. I estimate this contract LSU signs with MEMStek will be worth a range of several $100,000 to a million dollars per year. The major benefits, however, will come, if MEMStek--with several hundred well-paid employees-- locates its production facility next door to CAMD," said Saile.
He said researching and making micro-parts is similar to developing and building a new car.
"Before a car ever hits the showroom floor, it's a plan on paper, then it becomes a wood sculpture. Then, an actual life-size, working product is made. That working model might cost millions to make, and the manufacturer needs to decide how much the public will pay for the car and how much the company can afford to sell the car for."
MEMStek and CAMD are working together to perfect processes and products that will allow the center to start producing a large quantity of the micro devices in 1998. "Right now, we are doing quality control checks, making sure that the manufacturing process remains constant," said Saile.
MEMStek designs and manufactures very small metal and plastic components for use in electronics, instrumentation and precision mechanical assemblies. "CAMD is providing one step in a process that may require 100 steps. Think of a contractor of a plane. The contractor hires people to make ash trays, seats and the engines. In keeping with the plane analogy, CAMD is providing engines," said Marc Vandenberg, vice president of business development and operations for MEMStek.
CAMD has purchased a machine called a 'wiggler' which will allow the staff to burn or make several parts at one time. The 'wiggler,' being custom made in Siberia, Russia, strengthens the beamline's light, allowing it to make numerous products at once.
"When the wiggler is installed in about a year, we will be able to increase our production many times over. There are only a couple of machines similar to the wiggler being used, and ours will be the first in the United States that I am aware of," said Saile.
Saile believes CAMD's success comes from its unique operating procedure of allowing 'guest' beamlines. Beamlines are long (about 30 feet) metal tubes attached to the light source. The beamline acts as a 'dimmer' switch giving scientist the desired electromagnetic spectrum needed to perform a task. Beamlines can 'tune' into ultraviolet waves or X-rays. It's from the radiation source (the light bulb) to the beamline(the dimmer) that produce energy (or light) that etch lines and patterns on surfaces to make the gears or pumps.
A single, simple beamline costs about one million dollars, and the complex ones cost more than two million. Most of the beamlines do not belong to CAMD. They are built by other universities and laboratories with an agreement that the CAMD staff gets to use the beamlines half of the time. The Universities of Texas, Tennessee, Michigan, Nebraska, Tulane University, Louisiana Tech, Argonne National Laboratory and the National Synchrotron Laboratory in Brazil have built beamlines at CAMD.
"It's because of our uniqueness that MEMStek chose us to manufacture parts for them. We are very excited about this opportunity. The company looked all over the United States, and I dare say the world, and they chose us to make the product. Baton Rouge is quickly becoming known as the place to produce microstructures."
There are nine other light sources similar to CAMD in the United States, but the Baton Rouge-based facility is known world-wide in the microstructure industry for its efforts in lithography research, said Saile.
Although the center has crossed the line to producing products, CAMD will still continue to be a research and development facility, said Saile.
Saile says he receives calls practically everyday from companies interested in making products at CAMD. "The public would easily recognize these Fortune 500 companies, but this is a competitive industry, so I can't give any names. The MEMStek contract is the start of good things for Baton Rouge's economy and the research park."
The CAMD facility which opened in 1993 is located off Jefferson Highway near Corporate Boulevard on land slated to become a research park.
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