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UW, Microsoft, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory establish new Northwest Quantum Nexus for a quantum revolution in science, technology

Senator Maria Cantwell and Microsoft President Brad Smith

Via UW News: The University of Washington, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Microsoft Quantum announced this week that they have joined forces in a new coalition to bring about a revolution in quantum research and technology. The Northwest Quantum Nexus was unveiled during a two-day summit at the UW, an event that included scientists and engineers from the three keystone institutions, as well as potential partners in academia and industry from across the Pacific Northwest.

New method to assess platelet health could help ER doctors | UW News

A research team at the University of Washington has created a novel system that can measure platelet function within two minutes and can help doctors determine which trauma patients might need a blood transfusion upon being admitted to a hospital. The team published its results March 13 in Nature Communications. The microfluidics cards used in this study were made at WNF.

UW Hiring WNF Director

We currently have an opening for the position of WNF director. Come join a dedicated team at the largest publicly accessible cleanroom in the Pacific Northwest and a key facility in the NNCI network. Our recently renovated facility houses over 100 instruments covering a wide range of nanofabrication capabilities, including direct-write, contact, i-line, and e-beam lithography, extensive thin film processing, and back-end capabilities. The WNF director will oversee all aspects of cleanroom operation and supervise a staff of more than 10 technical and administrative members.

Layer by Layer: Nanofabrication Engineer Andy Lingley Reflects on WNF’s Role in his Career Development

“One of the really wonderful things about WNF is how it feels like a community,” says Andy Lingley, a nanofabrication engineer at Modern Electron, a cleantech startup located in Bellevue, Washington. Lingley joined the WNF community in 2007 when he was a new graduate student at UW, and he continued to work with WNF as his career progressed. He offers a unique perspective of WNF as someone who has utilized its nanofabrication capabilities as an academic user, staff scientist, and industrial user.

Scientists engineer a functional optical lens out of 2D materials | UW News

Arka Majumdar, a UW assistant professor of physics and of electrical and computer engineering and faculty member in the Institute for Nano-Engineered Systems, published a new paper in the journal Nano Letters announcing that his group, in collaboration with researchers at National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, has constructed functional metalenses that are one-tenth to one-half the thickness of the wavelengths of light that they focus. Their metalenses, which were constructed out of layered 2D materials, were as thin as 190 nanometers — less than 1/100,000ths of an inch thick. The team’s prototype metalenses were all built at WNF.

Introducing a Higher Resolution 3D Printer

Researchers and engineers across many fields, including optics, medicine, fluidics and mechanics, are increasingly interested in creating nanoscale parts for a variety of different applications. However, conventional equipment cannot fabricate three-dimensional nanostructures with sufficiently high resolution. The Washington Nanofabrication Facility is excited to offer users access to the Nanoscribe 3D Printer, a cutting-edge lithography system that produces unique 3D structures with 500nm resolution. This two-photon laser writer allows for additive manufacturing and maskless lithography within the same device. Its high…

Making humanity’s challenges smaller and smaller: UW launches Institute for Nano-Engineered Systems | UW News

Former WNF director Karl Bohringer is leading new nanotechnology institute dedicated to the development of solutions to the field’s most pressing challenges: the manufacturing of scalable, high-yield nano-engineered systems for applications in information processing, energy, health and interconnected life.

WNF celebrates completion of $37M remodel project

On October 24, 2017, The University of Washington National Nanotechnology Coordinated Structure (NNCI) Washington Nanofabrication Facility (WNF) officially opened the doors of its remodeled facility – a 15,000 square-foot space that offers an open-access cleanroom and expert resources to users. The environment further enhances the shared discovery and dissemination of new technologies focused on nanotechnology and fabrication processes.

Flexible ‘skin’ can help robots, prosthetics perform everyday tasks by sensing shear force | UW News

Engineers from the University of Washington and UCLA have developed a flexible sensor “skin” that can be stretched over any part of a robot’s body or prosthetic to accurately convey information about shear forces and vibration that are critical to successfully grasping and manipulating objects. The new stretchable electronic skin was manufactured at the UW’s Washington Nanofabrication Facility. It is made from the same silicone rubber used in swimming goggles. The rubber is embedded with tiny serpentine channels — roughly half the width of a human hair — filled with electrically conductive liquid metal that won’t crack or fatigue when the skin is stretched, as solid wires would do.