NASCENT, a National Science Foundation-funded Nanosystems Engineering Research Center headquartered in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, has added Emerson and Renwick to the center’s Industrial Partnership Program. Emerson and Renwick is based in Accrington, England, and provides equipment enabling high-volume roll-to-roll manufacturing of electronic and photonic devices. E&R’s recent development of its GENESIS roll-to-roll tool, designed for the productization of printed electronics, display and security applications, was recently featured in an article in The Economist magazine.
E&R is the latest industrial partner to team up with the NASCENT Center to leverage the center’s top research talent and state-of-the-art facilities. One of NASCENT’s goals is to accelerate the creation and commercialization of innovative nanomanufacturing processes, tools and devices.
"We’re very happy that Emerson and Renwick, a company supplying leading-edge vacuum roll-to-roll nanomanufacturing equipment, has decided to join the NASCENT Center,” said S.V. Sreenivasan, NASCENT co-director. “A key part of NASCENT’s vision is the development of the Nanodevice Manufacturability Fabrication Facility, or nm-Fab, that includes a roll-to-roll nanomanufacturing line. Integration of E&R’s capabilities into the nm-Fab will enable us to address emerging nanotech opportunities in flexible electronics and medicine.”
NASCENT’s partner institutions include the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of New Mexico, and it now has 16 members in its industrial affiliates program. The center supports the research of over 100 faculty members, postdoctoral staff, graduate students and undergraduate students with an annual research budget approaching $5 million.
"The NASCENT Center is focused on developing nanomanufacturing systems to enable future mobile devices,” said Larry Dunn, NASCENT industrial liaison officer. “E&R’s membership in the center brings new and exciting expertise to our industrial advisory board, particularly on the roll-to-roll nanomanufacturing side.”
About NASCENT: Created in 2012, the Nanomanufacturing Systems for Mobile Computing and Mobile Energy Technologies (NASCENT) is a National Science Foundation-funded Nanosystems Engineering Research Center. NASCENT’s vision is to create and validate a scalable and cost-effective nanomanufacturing infrastructure to enable future nanotech factories for deploying promising nanoscience concepts to address societal needs.
