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[MUSIC] >> Nanofabrication: a process the average
person isn't familiar with, but it's a process that can potentially help save lives -- and
a process that enables the electronic devices that you use every day.
>>Michael Khbeis: We are enabling the research devices that will affect people and their
livelihood. >> They are devices that facilitate the next
generation of information technologies. They span many disciplines and industries from
aerospace and defense to the medical research community -- all being produced on the University
of Washington campus by the Washington Nanofabrication Facility, a place that accelerates getting
ideas to the marketplace. WNF exists to assist researchers and companies in realizing their
sensing and computation solutions for unique and challenging applications.
>>Michael: So basically we start by making a chip by having a concept. We sit down with
our crew of engineers and help them come up with a design idea. We take that idea and
transfer it into a computer model where we lay out each layer. Fabrication is basically
a repetitive sequence of steps where we either add or subtract material to create the electronics
that people ask for. >> At WNF, commercial fabrication technology
is leveraged to develop new technologies. WNF is a place where researchers from physics,
biology, chemistry and engineering come together to work on problems.
>>Michael: Our user base is very diverse. >> Daniel Ratner is a "foundry user" at WNF;
that means when he needs something made, he tells the engineers at WNF what he needs and
they make it for him. >>Daniel Ratner: The WNF then provides a
soup to nuts service where they fabricate the device at a cost that I can support as
an academic researcher, but also at quality that I need to accomplish my own research
aims. >> Another model -- the user model -- allows
people or companies to come in and work on the equipment by themselves.
>>Michael: Most of our on-site users are regional companies. We absorb a lot of the
expenses of the high-priced equipment, we take care of the maintenance. It's a value
where they don't have to make all the capital investments themselves.
>>Gordon Holt: We initially approached a series of suppliers trying to get them to make our
chips for us, but it became clear that it was going to be much too costly and much too
slow. >> After thorough research, Gordon Holt's
company chose the UW's Washington Nanofabrication Facility to do the job.
>>Gordon: We would probably be dead if it wasn't for the UW facility. We would have
spent our money trying to find some other way to get the basic chip technology. The
personnel have just been superb, they've been extraordinarily good in helping us to increase
our expertise as quickly as possible to push the technology quite hard.
>> WNF is also a great resource for professors who cannot afford hundreds of thousands of
dollars to produce the microchips and devices they need for research.
>>Kai Mei Fu: The WNF is very important to my research. I can't do about two thirds to
four fifths of my research without being able to fabricate my devices.
>> Professor Fu is trying to create quantum information networks using devices comprised
of unconventional material. >>Kai Mei: It is possible to have someone
else fabricate your devices. But it slows down the process so much more because what
you want is an iterative process. And the ability to go back and forth is what really
pushes research at a speed where it could become a technological reality.
>> The Washington Nanofabrication Facility is supported in part by funding from the Washington
Research Foundation. Eager to enhance the user experience, the WNF has started a facility
renovation. >>Karl Böhringer: With these updates and
new equipment in the facility we will be able to provide much better service to our users.
Our users will be able to produce devices with much higher quality and better reliability.
>> This is all welcome news to Mike Bragg, dean of the UW's college of engineering, the
organization that oversees the Washington Nanofabrication Facility.
>>Michael Bragg: The facility is really a university facility, but it's really a regional
and national facility as well. These facilities are very expensive to run, they take an enormous
amount of expertise, and small companies really don't have the resources. So the startup companies
that we want to really encourage to produce jobs and great products in the area need a
facility like this. >> Whether you're an academic researcher,
local entrepreneur or company looking for R&D support, the WNF is here to help you succeed.
If you'd like to learn more about the WNF or get started on a project, visit www.wnf.uw.edu.
The Washington Nanofabrication Facility: Advancing Tomorrow's Solutions.
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