New nanotech group eyes industry-ready systems
Caltech is teaming up with France's CEA-Leti to launch initiative designed to more quickly bring nanotechnology innovations to the marketplace.
The California Institute of Technology is joining forces with France's CEA-Leti on a new initiative geared toward speeding delivery of nanotechnology systems and equipment from the lab to the business world.
The partnership will focus on several areas of nanotechnology systems, including high-sensitivity gas-phase chemical-sensing systems; highly multiplexed, microfluidic-interfaced mass spectrometry; and liquid-phase biochemical sensors for pharmaceutical research and point-of-care diagnostics.
Nanosystems are used to design microscopic, atomically precise structures and objects and are employed for a variety of applications and industries, from wireless devices to biology to health care.
CEA contributes to the nanotechnolgy field in four main areas: energy, information technologies, health care technologies, and defense and security. Its Leti group (Laboratory for Electronics and Information Technology) works with companies to increase their competitiveness through technological innovation.
Besides Caltech and CEA-Leti, the new alliance, known as the NanoSystems Partnership Program, will include four French companies from the private sector, including Areva, Leco, BioMerieux, and Total.
Over the past three years, Caltech's Kavli Nanoscience Institute (KNI) and CEA-Leti have combined their research expertise through the NanoVLSI Alliance to help move the field toward industry-ready nanosystems.