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May/Jun 2013  

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Assembly/ Packaging

Top Features

Get a (micro) handle on it

Even the nimblest human fingers have trouble holding tiny parts, so in micropart assembly, a little bit of help is needed from probes and grippers.

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Hot Off the Press: 3-D printers making more products—and news

Turn on the TV, pick up a consumer magazine or visit a popular Web news portal these days and you just might get an update on 3-D printing—the hottest topic in manufacturing.

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Faster Times

In the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, weapons engineers aboard the USS Enterprise didn’t need to search the galaxy for rapid-prototyping (RP) shops to model their phaser designs. All they had to do was program the ship’s holodeck with whatever death-ray design an engineer dreamed up in the shower, test the device on a few hostile Romulans and go into production.

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Building with µLegos

In the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage, doctors put a new spin on the term “house call.” Using microminiaturization technology, scientists shrink a team of surgeons to the size of the flu virus, then send the group on a mission to destroy a blood clot deep inside the brain of a Russian defector. (There’s no spoiler—you’ll have to watch the movie for yourself.)

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Meeting the conductive challenge

You probably don’t think about electrically conductive inks as you drive to work each morning. But it’s likely that you give at least a passing thought to some of your vehicle’s features that incorporate potentiometers and rheostats made with conductive inks.

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Looking Beyond MEMS

The deep-reactive-ion-etching (DRIE) process—notable for producing steep trenches and high walls reminiscent of a miniature Manhattan streetscape—helped propel microelectromechanical systems into the mainstream in the 1990s.

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Top Videos

Standford researchers develop all-carbon solar cell

Stanford University researchers have developed an all-carbon, thin-film prototype solar cell that they say could reduce the manufacturing costs associated with rigid silicon solar panels.

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ICOMM growing, achieving balanced global interest

April 13, 2012—With about 150 attendees turning out for the 7th International Conference on MicroManufacturing (ICOMM 2012) held March 12-14 at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., conference organizers hailed the balanced attendance from Asia, Europe and North America as a first for the annual gathering.

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3-D printing merges with printed electronics

soStratasys, Eden Prairie, Minn., and Optomec Inc., Albuquerque, N.M., have partnered in a joint development project to merge 3-D printing and printed electronics to create what Stratasys is calling the first fully printed hybrid structure, according to a release by Stratasys.

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Racecar sets world speed record

Small Car at Vienna thumbA 285µm-long racecar has been fabricated in record time via ultrahigh-precision 3-D printing at Vienna University of Technology.

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Australian researchers produce 'perfect' single-atom transistor

Feb. 20, 2012—The University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia, today announced that researchers at the university's ARC Center for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology successfully created a working transistor the size of one atom.

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Top Products

Stereolithography process

FineLine Prototyping Inc.

Fineline stereolithographyFineLine Prototyping Inc. is a rapidprototyping and additive-manufacturing company that specializes in fabricating high-accuracy, high-resolution parts for the medical device industry.

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Polyurethane adhesive for assembling advanced electronics

Appli-Tec

bottombAppli-thane 7300 is a blue, thermally conductive polyurethane adhesive compound for advanced electronic assembly. It is a self-leveling, injectable compound suitable for electronic bonding and potting, and may also be used for bonding leaded components. It has a long potlife, which maintains its dispensability for 4 hours, making it suitable for automated dispensing.

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Micromachining, fabrication book available

InTech

InTech micro book thumb"Micromachining Techniques for Fabrication of Micro and Nano Structures," a new book presenting advances in micromanufacturing technology, is available as a free download through InTech, an open access publisher of scholoarly papers and books.

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Spin-on hardmask product created for advanced lithography

Brewer Science Inc.

Feb. 21, 2012—Pixelligent LLC and Brewer Science Inc. have combined their respective expertise in nanocrystal additives and microelectronics "to create a next generation spin-on hardmask for advanced lithography," Brewer announced in a recent news release.

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Direct part-marking tool designed for medical devices

Roland DGA Corp.

MPX-90M impact printer thumbRoland DGA Corp., Irvine, Calif., this week unveiled a new compact and affordable direct part-marking tool designed specifically for medical devices. Based on the company's micro-percussion direct part-marking technology, the MPX-90M impact printer marks surgical instruments and tools with permanent GS1 DataMatrix barcodes, enabling manufacturers to readily comply with new, stricter supply chain regulations.

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