Mechanical Isolators Stop the Shakes - As Seen in Design News
Little-known mechanical alternative to air tables and active vibration isolators tackles low-frequency vibrations

Buildings really do shake and sway under our feet. Most of us don’t even notice these low-frequency vibrations, but they can bother the researchers who use sophisticated imaging systems or test instrument. Whether the cause is the wind or a nearby HVAC system, low-frequency vibrations can wreak havoc with the data from scanning probe microscopes, interferometers, micro-hardness testers and other types of sensitive test and measurement equipment. This vibration problem mostly affects researchers who work at atomic and nanoscale resolutions, but the problem is getting worse... Click Here For More.

Controlling Vibration in Nanotech Applications - As Seen in Labratory Equipment
Negative-Stiffness Vibration Isolation Offers an Economical Solution
It wasn't too long ago that making the decision where to locate your scanning probe microscope was a simple one—put it in the basement where ambient vibration was least. But recently, with nanotechnology applications growing exponentially, scientists and engineers are putting their equipment in locations where vibration noise is significantly high. Scanning probe microscopes, interferometers and stylus profilers are being sited in locations that pose a serious challenge to vibration isolation. Additionally, in an effort to keep their nano-equipment costs as low as possible by cutting out the peripherals, many academics and industries are not adequately providing for vibration isolation on their ultra-sensitive nano-equipment. Click Here For More

'Negative stiffness' isolates vibrations - As Seen in EE Times
Minus K Technology Inc. claims that the "negative stiffness" mechanism it has developed isolates objects from vibrations better than traditional solutions. Such techniques provide the stable platform and angstrom-level accuracy needed to test microelectro-mechanical systems, nanoscale metrology and semiconductor fabrication tools, for example. "Our negative stiffness mechanism exerts an opposing force that cancels out the stiffness in a spring," said David Platus, president and CEO of Minus K (Inglewood, Calif.). "That gives us isolation that is twice as good as other active systems but for half the price of air table-style passive vibration isolation systems." Click Here For More.

Better atomic force microscopy for nanoelectronics - As Seen in Laboratory Talk

Arizona State University nanostructures group uses negative-stiffness vibration isolation to eliminate ultra-low frequencies and improve data in nanoelectronics AFM research, reports Jim McMahon. It was not until long after 1977 that the name nanoelectronics came into use, but David Ferry was already actively engaged in developing some of the world's smallest transistors. The field, called ultra-small devices at that time in the later part of the1970s, was in its infancy, and Dr Ferry's research team was one of only four select groups around the world aggressively researching the limits of small electronic devices. Today, Ferry heads up the nanostructures research group at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, a collection of faculty, staff and students working on research in the regimes of nanolithography, and the physics of nanostructures and ultra-small semiconductor devices. Click Here For More.