Atomically Precise Manufacturing (APM) has been a long-term goal of the Zyvex Corporation since its inception in 1997. The ability to create revolutionary manufacturing technologies for molecularly precise products and materials underpins many of the projects currently underway at the company.
Building off of their APM research program, the Zyvex-led APMC was created in late 2007, demonstrating the larger community interest in molecularly-precise manufacturing. With a roster of government, industry, and academic partners, see below, the APMC plans to develop atomically precise nanotechnology-based products with high-rate, high-volume manufacturing techniques at reasonable cost and to maximize the commercial opportunities for this technology.
The first steps, however, are creating the capability to fabricate stable nanostructures and the parallel processes to integrate those structures into marketable products. “The primary focus is building the tools to build products,” says James Von Ehr, founder and CEO of Zyvex Corporation. “As we get closer to TBN, new products will come up that will be more closely aligned with the market realities.” Those will be the primary beneficiaries of the advanced technologies that emerge from the work of the APMC.
The APMC is already working toward their objectives--specifically the alignment of atomically precise lithography with gas phase chemistry for the creation of stable 3-D nanostructures. We can expect to see publications and patents emerging from this group that will chart at least one road toward precision manufacturing.
Atomically Precise Manufacturing Consortium
Industry Partners:
• Zyvex Corporation
• General Dynamics
• Integrated Circuit Scanning Probe Instruments
• Vought Aircraft
Academic Partners:
• University of Central Florida
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• University of Texas at Dallas
• University of Texas at Austin
• University of North Texas
Government Partners:
• NIST
• North Texas Regional Center for Innovation & Commercialization
