Business Wire - July 2005
Minus K(R) Technology Selected
by Stanford University for STM Nanotechnology Vibration Isolation
INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- Minus K Technology, a leading manufacturer of vibration isolation products, announces that Minus K has been selected by the Manoharan Nanoscale Facility at Stanford University to provide critical vibration isolation for Stanford's Scanning Tunneling Microscopes (STMs).
The Minus K supplied vibration isolation will incorporate the Minus K patented Negative Stiffness technology and will be used by Stanford to support advanced nanotechnology research.
"Sub-Hertz vibration isolation is an important enabling technology for sub-Angstrom nanotechnology research, and Minus K Technology is the only company we identified that can deliver the level of isolation we need to achieve our performance goals with our Scanning Tunneling Microscopes (STMs)," said Professor Hari Manoharan of the Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials at Stanford University.
"The selection of Minus K Technology by the prestigious Manoharan Laboratory is further validation that our Negative Stiffness technology uniquely solves some of the most difficult vibration problems known today, facilitating crucial advances in science and technology," said David Platus, President and Chief Executive Officer of Minus K Technology. "Applications and research which up until recently were either impossible or cost prohibitive are now feasible, even in vibration-harsh environments. In particular, this project proves that Negative Stiffness technology can be easily scaled up for very large payloads in spatially restricted environments."
Minus K vibration isolators incorporating Negative Stiffness technology can guarantee natural frequencies as low as 0.35 Hz, deliver 10 to 100 times more isolation than high performance air-based solutions, and are ideal for isolating applications on upper floors and subject to low-frequency building vibrations. Minus K isolation efficiencies exceed 90% at 2 Hz and 99% at 5 Hz.
Because Negative Stiffness technology is entirely passive and lightweight, it can be uniquely deployed in vacuum, clean room and other critical applications where heat from power, noise and leakage from air facilities, or electrically induced magnetism can pose a significant risk to the application. Minus K isolation products offer easy installation and virtually no operation and maintenance costs.
Minus K Technology, Inc. is a leading global supplier of high performance vibration isolation products, systems and services to a wide range of markets from biology and neuroscience to aerospace, semiconductors, and nanotechnology. Minus K's innovative solutions leverage its expertise in vibration isolation to enhance the capabilities and productivity of its customers'; manufacturing, engineering and research applications. Minus K is the vibration isolation platform of choice for many critical applications, providing end-user and OEM solutions to commercial, academic and government customers worldwide. They are an OEM supplier to leading manufactures of SPMs, SEMs, micro-hardness testers and other sensitive instruments, and they have sold to more than 200 universities and government laboratories in 35 countries. Founded in 1993, Minus K is headquartered in Inglewood, California.