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INL will award 21 COFUND fellowships

INL will award 21 COFUND fellowships

The International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) will award 21 COFUND NanoTRAINforGrowth Fellowships. The fellowship programme supports promising postdoctoral researchers in their academic career development through integration into research groups, facilitating new co-operations in a stimulating and interdisciplinary research environment. Successful candidates will have the opportunity to plan a research project and work on their own research idea, at INL´s facilities. The Cofund fellowships will be awarded in the main focus areas of INL, respectively Nanomedicine (emphasis on cancer research) and Nanotechnologies for food safety and environmental control. The programme will also provide training on leadership and communication skills, project management and on obtaining research funding. INL´s NanoTRAINforGrowth fellowship programme will allow international researchers to develop their work over a period of two years.Researchers will be selected through a competitive call, expected to be launched in January 2013. The NanoTRAINforGrowth fellowship programme will run for four years (2013 – 2016) with an overall budget of 3.3M€ and is co-financed by the Marie Curie Actions of the European Union.

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Nobel Laureate Harold Kroto gave lecture at INL

Nobel Laureate Harold Kroto gave lecture at INL

Sir Harold Kroto, one of the co-recipients of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry delivered (June 1st) at INL, in Braga (Portugal) a lecture entitled «Carbon in Nano and Outer Space». The Nobel laureate stressed the importance of improving the general level of scientific understanding and awareness worldwide. «Acceptance of the truth» should go hand in hand with «understanding the truth». Harold Kroto invited the young scientists in the audience to address present challenges and to think out of the box, to focus their creativity and commitment in the subject they feel genuinely passionate about. Referring to the importance of the discovery of penicillin and anaesthetics and its impact on the improvement of human well-being, Kroto directed the attention to a present challenge: the decreasing effectiveness of antibiotics. Prof. Kroto began his lecture telling the story of his and his colleagues’ odyssey towards the discovery of C60. In 1970 his research group conducted laboratory began spectroscopic studies on long linear carbon chain molecules with colleague David Walton. This research led to radio astronomy searches with Takeshi Oka and Canadian astronomers (Lorne Avery, Norman Broten and John McLeod) at the National Research Council in Canada which made the surprising discovery that […]

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INL installs LPX Pegasus ASE, a Deep Silicon Etch (DRIE) with a broad range of challenging applications

INL installs LPX Pegasus ASE, a Deep Silicon Etch (DRIE) with a broad range of challenging applications

Advanced Silicon Etch (ASE) is a deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) technique used to rapidly etch deep and high aspect ratio structures in silicon. LPX Pegasus is the continuation of STS’ Advanced Silicon Etch (ASE) technology. Through an in-depth understanding of the Bosch process and with the required hardware, Pegasus is able to provide excellent profile control and selectivity. The increased etch rate and improved uniformity lead to higher throughput and device yield, resulting in increased productivity. This inductively de-coupled plasma (IDP) system uses fluorine-based gases for anisotropic deep silicon trench etching. The 13.56 MHz RF power supply produces high-density, low-pressure, low-energy plasma. This type of plasma allows high selectivity and aspect ratio etching for depths greater than 150 microns and has an expected etch rate better than 15 microns/ min. Used primarily for MEMs devices, the typical materials used in this etcher are silicon wafers covered with photoresist and thin films of silicon dioxide and silicon nitride. The performance improvements that Pegasus brings have numerous benefits for research as well as for end-users. At the moment, the tool is being installed in the INL’s facilities and it is expected that the final validation process will take place the first […]

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