Advance Nanotech Provides Update On ULTRATUBE
New York — Advance Nanotech, Inc., a leading provider of financing and support services to drive the commercialization of nanotechnology-related products for homeland security and display technologies, recently provided an update on its ULTRATUBE collaboration with Dow Corning — a joint venture between Corning Inc. and Dow Chemical Co. — and the University of Cambridge.
At the International Conference on Optical, Optoelectronic and Photonic Materials and Applications in London, from July 30 through August 3, 2007, scientists from the ULTRATUBE team reported significant progress in the realization of a compact and rugged fiber laser capable of delivering sub-picosecond (trillionth of a second) optical pulses.
Led by Dr. Andrea Ferrari and Prof. Bill Milne at the Centre for Advance Photonics and Electronics (CAPE) of the University of Cambridge, ULTRATUBE is a CAPE Partner Project that has benefited from Advance Nanotech's funding and commercialization resources as well as Dow Corning's provision of high-performance photonic polymers. At this and other recent conferences, the ULTRATUBE team has demonstrated the excellent robustness of this packaged laser, which stems from the reduced sensitivity of the CNT-based technology to optical misalignment and mechanical perturbations. The team has shown how the laser module can be moved, shaken and tapped without affecting the laser output. Increased laser operating power will soon enable a wide range of applications, and the ULTRATUBE team has started to collaborate with an established European laser manufacturer for the custom development of CNT-based components for commercial pulsed lasers.
Commenting on the demonstration of the laser module, Dr. Claudio Marinelli, Advance Nanotech's Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Cambridge said: "This demonstration provides further evidence of the continued progress of the ULTRATUBE program. That we can demonstrate a device the size of a paperback book with these performance characteristics not only confirms the potential of nanotechnology but also unlocks new market possibilities."
ULTRATUBE researchers have mixed polymers with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to create very low-cost, nano-composite films that interact with laser light to turn a continuous light beam into a train of ultrashort pulses, with durations of only few hundred femtoseconds (a femtosecond is one billionth of one millionth of a second). Short-pulse lasers are used for processing (drilling, cutting and micromachining) a wide range of materials, as well as for medical imaging, basic research, instrumentation, inspection, measurement and control applications. This market is currently served by diode-pumped solid state lasers and fiber lasers. ULTRATUBE "plug-and-play" photonic components can be installed in existing laser systems to enable or enhance the generation of high-quality, ultrashort optical pulses.
In recognition of their technical breakthroughs and the high commercial potential of their work, Dr. Ferrari and his team were short-listed in February 2007 as one of the four finalists for the $500,000 Royal Society Brian Mercer Award for Innovation 2007. This prestigious Royal Society award was set up in 2001 to help scientists develop already proven prototypes in the field of nanotechnology through to market products for commercial exploitation.
The ULTRATUBE investment is held by Advance Nanotech's subsidiary Advance Display Technologies PLC and is traded on the PLUS market in London under the symbol ADTP.
About the Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics (CAPE)
CAPE has a three-point mission: 1) to invent and develop, through multidisciplinary research, materials, processes, components and systems; 2) to define the future strategy and market implementation for such technologies, and 3) to set the industry agendas for the convergence of photonic and electronic technology platforms. CAPE is associated with the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge and builds on Cambridge's history of world-leading research in Photonics and Electronics by significantly enhancing collaboration with industry. CAPE emphasizes rapid application of breakthrough research by placing issues of industrial importance at the top of the research agenda. In such a way CAPE provides a focal point for contributing companies to form strategic relationships at an early stage involving directed R&D. Finally CAPE provides a focus for multidisciplinary research involving engineers, but also chemists, physicists, materials scientists and bioscientists. There are currently four strategic partners in CAPE namely, Alps Electric Company Limited, Ericsson-Marconi, Dow Corning Limited and Advance Nanotech Inc.
About Advance Nanotech, Inc.
Advance Nanotech identifies patented, patent-pending and proprietary technologies at leading universities and funds the additional development of such technologies in exchange for the exclusive rights to commercialize any resulting products. Advance Nanotech has interests in over 20 nanotechnologies, grouped into two operating subsidiaries: Advance Display Technologies PLC, which is listed on the PLUS-Quoted market in London (ADTP) and Advance Homeland Security PLC. By partnering with universities and leveraging the infrastructure and multi-disciplinary human resources of its university partners, Advance Nanotech reduces its cost base and mitigates risk. After prototypes are proven within the lab and the Company develops a product roadmap and business plan, it forms majority-owned subsidiaries around the specific technology. It seeks to return value to our shareholders through the sale or licensing of the technology, by securing additional financing for the subsidiary from either the venture capital community or the capital markets, or by successfully executing its business plan and consolidating its income as the majority shareholder.
SOURCE: Advance Nanotech