UT printed electronics has build-up research
Nicolas Mokhoff
1/10/2011 10:41 AM EST
MANHASSET, NY -- The University of Texas at El Paso wants to become a center for research in printing electronics using a bottom-up additive approach.
The center is being funded by the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, Lockheed Martin and the University of Texas System for an initial total $9 million.
One part of that funding--in investment of $3 million by the state through the Texas Emerging Technology Fund--is to create integrated 3-D systems technologies through the Structural and Printed Emerging Technologies (SPEC) Center in the UTEP College of Engineering.
For its part, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics will contribute $3 million toward five-year operating costs of the new center, and The University of Texas System has pledged $3 million in construction and equipment to launch the state-of-the-art advanced printed electronics research facility.
The SPEC Center will use additive manufacturing equipment and research resources from the college’s W.M. Keck Center for 3-D Innovation to create a 3-D model and mold by precisely building up layers of material.
The SPEC Center will initially focus on printed electronics and will be directed by Kenneth H. Church, a well-known expert in the printed electronics field and whose research interests include lasers, optics, tissue-engineered materials, antenna designs and other novel electronic devices.
“The SPEC Center will be one of the world’s first brick-and-mortar ‘foundries’ for printed electronics, a market that is expected to grow into billions of dollars over the next decade,” said Church.
Church launched a UTEP-based start-up called 3D Monolithix to produce and market 3-D and printed electronics, he said.
Industry partner Lockheed Martin Aeronautics anticipates the research to be useful for the company’s aviation, space and homeland security products and services.
"Advanced manufacturing technology will be a critical factor in the aircraft and aviation systems of the future,” said Frank Cappuccio, executive vice president of Advanced Development Programs, also known as the Skunk Works, at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics.
UTEP’s manufacturing-technology facilities have been built up over the past few years and hold besides the W.M. Keck Center for 3-D Innovation, the NanoMaterials Integration Laboratory (NanoMIL), where researchers are integrating nanoscale into electronic devices and components assemblies, and the new Research Institute for Manufacturing and Engineering Systems (RIMES), which produces advanced software tools for best-practice design of complex products and systems, such as those used in the aerospace and defense industries.
信息来源：http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4212034/UT-printed-electronics-has-build-up-research?cid=NL_EETimesDaily
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