The Emerging Super Black Nanomaterials Poised for Broad Technological Impact
Dr. Narendra Parmar, Dr. Ilker Bayer, Abhijit Biswas

Atlas Copco is today announcing to the U.S. market the launch of three new intelligent VSD+ vacuum pumps. The DZS 100 - 400 VSD+ series pumps are a range of air-cooled, oil-free claw pumps made for particularly harsh applications. They come with built-in variable speed drive (VSD) and can be controlled remotely by the new VSD+ App.
Kanagawa, Japan – November 25th, 2019 – ULVAC, Inc. (ULVAC), headquartered in Kanagawa, Japan and lead by CEO Setsuo Iwashita and SILEX Microsystems AB (Silex), headquartered in Järfälla, Sweden and lead by CEO Edvard Kälvesten, today announced they have signed an agreement to develop a production thin film piezoelectric process (PZT) for MEMS actuators and sensors with cutting edge performance and reliability.
Inspired by the enormous unmet needs of people with rare diseases, a group of scientists from across the globe has teamed up to develop open-access tools and resources for sharing disease characteristics and treatment information. The research is centered around an artificial intelligence-enabled catalog of disease descriptions called Mondo, which, like a Wikipedia for rare diseases, can be added to and improved by the scientific and medical community.
As scientists study approaches to best sustain a fusion reactor, a team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory investigated injecting shattered argon pellets into a super-hot plasma, when needed, to protect the reactor’s interior wall from high-energy runaway electrons. Other pellet materials, frozen from room-temperature gasses, have successfully reduced the plasma’s thermal energy, but argon was most effective at runaway electron dissipation. Using fuel pellet injection technology – which literally shoots cryogenic pellets of fuel into the plasma to raise its density – the team used an injector optimized for argon during a series of tests at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility. “Now that we have demonstrated argon’s effectiveness, our next step is to determine how many pellets and pellet injectors are needed for a solution that’s applicable,” said ORNL’s Larry Baylor. This research may be scaled up for possible application on ITER, the international experimental reactor.
Since 2000 Vacuum Technology & Coating Magazine has been the industry's leading source for the latest articles, news, and product and service information. Below we describe some of the terms that you will find in a typical issue of VT&C.
Vacuum Coating (Vacuum Deposition and Thin Film Deposition) is the process of depositing a film or other material atom by atom or molecule by molecule onto a surface in a low pressure environment or vacuum.
Physical Vapor Deposition or PVD refers to vacuum deposition methods which involve the material (which is being deposited) going from a condensed phase to a vapor phase and then to a thin film condensed phase. Sputtering and evaporation are common PVD processes.
Sputtering refers to a type of process used to deposit thin films and employs a plasma to bombard and eject atoms from a target source.
Evaporation refers to the heated source material being evaporated in a vacuum. Vacuum allows vapor particles to travel directly to the target object, where they condense back to a solid state. (called a Deposition Source) refers to a type of process used to deposit thin films and employs a plasma to bombard and eject atoms from the target source (called a Deposition Source).
Vacuum Hardware refers to the types of hardware and components that are used in the vacuum process. There are many types of hardware used in this process, some examples are flanges, fittings, seals, valves, and chambers.
Thin Film Metrology involves determining the optimal thickness, composition and/or condition of a coating through various techniques and mathematical calculations.
Gas Analytical Systems are used in the analysis of residual gases within a low pressure environment or vacuum.
Vacuum Pumps are devices that remove gas atoms and molecules for the purpose of leaving behind a partial vacuum. Some examples of types of vacuum pumps are rotary vane pumps, diaphragm pumps, and scroll pumps.
Every issue of VT&C includes a product showcase focused on a specific topic relevant to Vacuum Processing, please see our editorial calendar which lists the topic for each issue.