Measurements. So fundamentally important, yet they perform their essential roles as inconspicuously as an arch's unadorned keystone. Today, measurements support a broadening span of products, processes, and capabilities built with modern technology. As a result, nearly all spheres of technical activity in the United States ultimately depend on the research and services of the Measurement and Standards Laboratories at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The reach of NIST's high-quality measurement tools, data, and services extends from science and medicine to industry and commerce and from health and the environment to law enforcement and national defense.
Technology propels much of the U.S. economy, fueling half its growth over the last half century. Accurate, reliable measurements and standards already are central, supporting elements. Recent experience suggests they will become even more basic to this progress. As a result, NIST's efforts to ensure that the U.S. measurement system is the best in the world also will become more integral to the nation's economic competitiveness.
Measurement Support for ...
New and Emerging Industries. Many of today's blockbuster technologies and industries were unforeseen, not only when the Measurement and Standards Laboratories were created--in 1901, as the National Bureau of Standards-- but even as recently as a few decades ago. Examples are many: software, flat panel displays, optical fibers, magnetic storage devices, radiopharmaceutical drugs, computer networking, heat-seeking missiles, cellular phones, Global Positioning System satellites, high-speed machine tools, computer-aided design, and scanning electron microscopes. These and other modern technologies--and new ones yet to emerge--present a growing, diversifying list of measurement needs and challenges that NIST is addressing through its research and services. Some examples:
- As U.S. biotech firms work to develop new medical diagnostics and sensors based on DNA, NIST is supplying essential information and tools. With a new NIST DNA "chip," companies are improving their understanding of how strands of the genetic material attach and assemble themselves on a surface. This basic information will help biotech firms develop and reliably manufacture diagnostic DNA chips, which integrate many single-strand fragments for quick, accurate identification of bacteria, viruses, and genetic disease markers.
- A recently begun NIST calibration service is helping U.S. industry to improve wireless telephone systems. A unique indoor testing range is used to determine the accuracy of specialized trumpet-shaped antennas, which companies then use to check the performance of communications antennas designed for low Earth orbit satellites.
In the automotive industry alone, more than 350 different NIST-developed measurement tools and services are embedded in the process- and quality-control systems of companies.
Established Industries. NIST measurements and standards already are woven into the technical infrastructure underpinning the performance of companies in scores of established industries--from machine tools to photographic film to medical devices. Consider that:
- The accuracy of coordinate measuring machines in thousands of factories is checked with measurement standards traceable to NIST and applied according to industry-standardized procedures developed with NIST's technical assistance. In the automotive industry alone, more than 350 different NIST-developed measurement tools and services are embedded in the process- and quality-control systems of companies.
- The U.S. semiconductor industry's technology roadmap calls on NIST--an industry partner for more than four decades--to play a major role in overcoming significant measurement-related obstacles. Looming measurement challenges threaten the industry's long run of success in squeezing ever more and ever smaller devices onto slivers of silicon, resulting in succeeding generations of faster, more powerful, and more capable integrated circuits.
Science. Accurate, reliable measurements and data are the currency of modern science. They enable researchers to communicate and compare results in the same unambiguous technical language. NIST-provided measurements and data can make research more efficient, helping to minimize uncertainties and ambiguities that may undermine experiments and contribute to discrepancies or even conflicting results. For instance:
- Researchers at universities, companies, and government laboratories regularly consult the more than 60 NIST- compiled electronic databases that provide evaluated, well documented data in chemistry, physics, materials, biology, building and fire research, speech recognition software, and electronics.
Government. Whether their mission is to analyze the dynamics of global change, explore the far reaches of space, assure the flight-worthiness of aircraft, or ensure that consumers get their money's worth, many government agencies call on the NIST Measurement and Standards Laboratories for technical assistance and supporting services. Accurate measurements are often core components of important technical activities undertaken at all levels of government--federal, state, and local. To illustrate:
- Eighty percent of state forensic laboratories use NIST-certified Standard Reference Materials to ensure the accuracy of DNA profiling tests.
- NIST developed the original computerized system the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) uses to match fingerprint evidence against 38 million records, so that local police can identify suspects. NIST researchers now are working to link fingerprint biometrics with digital signatures, an accomplishment that would enable law enforcement agencies--as well as corporations and consumers--to make secure electronic transactions.
- The U.S. military uses specialized equipment devised by NIST to calibrate and thereby ensure the accuracy of range-finder and target-acquisition systems deployed on jets, helicopters, and missiles.
Eighty percent of state forensic laboratories use NIST-certified Standard Reference Materials to ensure the accuracy of DNA profiling tests.
The Big Picture
Many benefits radiate from a healthy measurement infrastructure, the responsibility of the Measurement and Standards Laboratories. NIST's maintenance of accurate weights and measures, for example, helps to ensure the fair exchange of more than $3 trillion in U.S. goods, from slices of cheese sold at the deli counter to millions of cubic meters of natural gas transported through pipelines. Trillions of dollars in additional sales are supported by NIST-delivered measurement techniques, equipment calibrations, and standards that are used as tools during research, design, production, and, especially, market transactions. By themselves, measurements and measurement-related activities have been estimated to account for 3 to 6 percent of the gross domestic product of industrialized nations.
Economic Impact. NIST's Measurement and Standards Laboratories impartially deliver essential public goods--vital components of the nation's technology infrastructure--to companies, universities, and government agencies. Like a fulcrum, they supply leverage for actions and capabilities that, altogether, generate substantial economic benefits.
Performed by outside organizations, evaluations of NIST's measurement research and services show how the benefits resulting from individual projects and services flow to companies, industries, and the economy at large. For the 15 economic assessments conducted so far, conservatively estimated, aggregate--or "spillover"--rates of return to the economy range from 32 percent to 433 percent. The median rate of return is about 140 percent--nearly three times better than the estimated average return for new technology projects launched in the private sector.
Capsules of a few recent studies illustrate the payoffs generated by taxpayer investments in NIST measurement research and services.
- Used by companies and hospitals, NIST's radiopharmaceutical standards ensure consistent, high-accuracy measurements of doses of radiation dispensed during cancer therapy, yielding a benefit-to-cost ratio of 97 to 1. This measure is strictly a gauge of money saved by patients and manufacturers; it says nothing about the sizable additional benefit of increased public confidence in radiation therapy and diagnosis.
- For a sample of 11 companies, NIST research on alternative refrigerants has generated a social rate of return of 433 percent, the result of cost savings realized during the race to meet the international deadline for phasing out ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Expenditures of about $2.7 million translated into savings totaling about $14.2 million. Timely delivery of reliable data on alternative refrigerants, along with analytical software, made the search for CFC replacements more efficient.
Used by companies and hospitals, NIST's radiopharmaceutical standards ensure consistent, high-accuracy measurements of doses of radiation dispensed during cancer therapy, yielding a benefit-to-cost ratio of 97 to 1.
- U.S. makers of coordinate measuring machines credited NIST with saving them 5 to 10 years in early-stage research and attributed annual production-efficiency gains--ranging from 10 to 30 percent between 1985 and 1988--to NIST's pioneering work on computer-based, error-compensation methods. The technology enabled them to produce lower-cost designs without sacrificing performance. In all, the effort is conservatively estimated to have generated a social rate of return of nearly 100 percent.
- The NIST-developed Fire Safety Evaluation System has helped health care facilities to identify effective, least-cost solutions for complying with regulations and ensuring patient safety, resulting in estimated cost savings averaging more than $1,200 per hospital or nursing-home bed.
Nearing the Century Mark: From the Age of Electricity ...
For nearly 100 years, NIST has been the steward of the U.S. measurement system. Since 1901, the Measurement and Standards Laboratories--and their forerunner, the National Bureau of Standards--have carried out the constitutionally assigned federal imperative to "fix the standard of weights and measures" for the nation.
At the turn of this century, the nation's economy was industrializing rapidly and measurement needs multiplied. The dawning age of electricity spawned light and power companies, appliance manufacturers, communications firms, and other kinds of businesses. Many called on the new agency to develop basic electric measurements as well as the tests, calibrations, and instruments required to link these measurements to their operations.
Other demands, to name a few, were methods to ensure the reliability of clinical thermometers, the integrity of building materials, the purity of chemicals, the coupling of fire hoses, and the accuracy of railroad freight scales. After the tragedy of the Titanic, the nation looked to NIST to develop better radio equipment, test procedures, and standards. All were necessary to improve the quality and reliability of radio communications at sea.
Today, NIST-provided data and ever more sophisticated measurement tools continue to underpin efforts that are harnessing radio waves and other parts of the spectrum for a still unfolding array of uses--in communications, entertainment, navigation, national defense, and air safety. In scores of U.S. industries, NIST measurement tools and services now are deeply embedded in their operations.
... To the Information Age
The nation is again in the midst of a crucial transition. On the threshold of a new millennium, it is progressing toward an information-age economy that competes in a technology-intensive global market. In this environment, advances in metrology--the practice and science of measurement--are key to innovation, mastering new technologies, and improving competitive performance. A recent assessment by the Semiconductor Industry Association, composed of integrated circuit manufacturers and their suppliers, makes the point: "Without satisfactory metrology, the industry will ... cease to be competitive."
Tests, measurements, and standards also are necessary to unlock the full potential of information technology--the vast and growing assortment of products and services powered by the semiconductor industry's amazing microelectronic (and, soon, "nano" electronic) creations. In industry, information technology already is changing the way companies organize, operate, collaborate, and compete. In education, it is creating new avenues for learning. In medicine, it is spurring innovations in the delivery of care. In virtually every area of society, information technology is poised to have a positive, revolutionizing impact.
Information technology, however, is not yet achieving its full potential. Nor are U.S. businesses and consumers realizing full value on the estimated $500 billion that they now spend annually on information technology products and services. Infrastructural barriers stand in the way. These include equipment and system incompatibilities, privacy and security concerns, unreliable network service, and ambiguous methods for evaluating software and hardware performance.
The NIST Measurement and Standards Laboratories are helping to remove barriers to the networking of society and to building a knowledge-based economy for the 21st century. Through expanding collaborations with industry, NIST is leveraging its expertise and working to develop effective, economical solutions to common information technology problems. Areas of emphasis are: information security and integrity; tests for evaluating hardware and software performance, reliability, and compatibility; advanced networking capabilities; quality of service; measurements of data, audio, and video quality; and development of prototype standards for ensuring interoperability.
The laboratories also are contributing to the development of the Next Generation Internet--a federal research initiative that aims to build an Internet that interconnects all Americans and is 1,000 times faster than today's.
Enabling technologies are the information age's equivalents of roads, bridges, interchanges, and even mass transit rails. To build them, the laboratories work with both the suppliers and the users of information technology to create and assemble this critical infrastructure. Industry-focused approaches include:
- the National Advanced Manufacturing Testbed (NAMT), a geographically distributed testbed built on a high-speed communication and computing infrastructure. Through the NAMT, NIST researchers and their remotely located collaborators at companies, universities, and government laboratories are tackling the important task of developing, demonstrating, testing, and refining prototype standards for efficiently configuring and integrating systems, factories, and multicompany enterprises.
- the National Construction Automation Testbed, where NIST and its distributed partners are testing and integrating a novel array of advanced technologies that, together, can improve construction productivity and reduce the need for costly rework. They are developing the infrastructure that will enable modeling, simulation, and automation of dangerous or error-pone construction tasks; remote site-management capabilities; and up-to-the-moment access to all site-related information, from architectural designs to subcontractor schedules to the status of machinery.
International Connections
Internationally recognized as the U.S. measurement authority, the NIST laboratories are linked directly to the international measurement system. This system, collectively maintained by NIST and its counterpart national measurement laboratories in other nations, is integral to world trade. With international trade volume growing by about 15 percent annually, an important job for NIST is to assure that measurement capabilities and standards are in place to support U.S. companies' access to global markets.
Increasingly, U.S. exporters are required to demonstrate that the measurements they make during processing, inspection, and other operations descend directly from the international measurement system. "Traceability" to NIST provides an uninterrupted measurement pedigree. It enables prospective customers to assess the reliability of a company's measurements during manufacturing and buyers and sellers to agree on the characteristics of products.
...NIST laboratories are linked directly to the international measurement system.
Technical Barriers to Trade. But just like some modern information networks, today's international measurement system is not seamless. Disparities and inconsistencies exist, sometimes surfacing as trade barriers. Such technical barriers may take the form of complex specifications, inconsistent standards, or duplicative testing requirements that add significantly to the cost of doing business in foreign markets.
With other national measurement laboratories, and in consultation with U.S. industry and standards organizations, NIST is working to build a framework for achieving international measurement equivalence. The result will be a worldwide system of uniform and accurate measurements traceable to national measurement laboratories, including NIST. By eliminating conflicting measurement requirements and other technical barriers to trade, such a system could boost annual U.S. exports by billions of dollars.
Complementary efforts range from advocating for U.S. standards and conformity assessment practices in the international arena to educating foreign standards officials in U.S. industry standards. In addition, NIST works with the private sector and federal regulators to harmonize domestic voluntary laboratory accreditation and to simplify the maze of often confusing or peculiar testing requirements that face U.S. exporters.
Back at Home. U.S. industry and professional groups tap NIST's expertise as they devise common, agreed-upon methods for performing particular measurements, establishing performance or product specifications, or defining tests for evaluating conformance with these so-called consensus standards. In the United States, such standards are generated by more than 600 private-sector organizations, which may then propose their standards for international adoption. NIST staff members participate on more than 800 standards committees. Often-times, NIST's objective and impartial participation is essential to forging industry agreement on the content of standards.
At the same time, NIST is charged with spearheading and coordinating efforts intended to increase federal agencies' use of voluntary, private-sector standards.
Frontiers of Measurement Science
As the ultimate reference point for measurements in the United States, the Laboratories aim to develop measurement capabilities that exceed the best methods practiced in industry. Building this lead in measurement accuracy is a constant challenge.
But it's also cost effective. Situated at the pinnacle of the nation's measurement system, NIST strives to realize the seven basic measurement units (for measuring length, light, electricity, chemical concentration, temperature, time, and mass) to the highest possible level of accuracy. Once this is accomplished, the basic measurements and the thousands of quantities that flow from them can be disseminated throughout the country--to companies, university laboratories, state weights and measures offices, and more.
A key, long-term strategy is to develop and disseminate measurement reference standards based directly on the unchanging fundamental physics of nature. With such tools, measurements performed in the factory, hospital, or anywhere else could approach levels of accuracy achievable in a national laboratory.
The Foundation: Measurement Research
... NIST representatives often work closely with U.S. industry in its technology planning efforts.
Unique in its responsibilities, NIST is at the core of measurement research in the United States. The results pay direct dividends, yielding improvements in NIST's services, as well as new knowledge, capabilities, and techniques that are transferred to industry, university, and government.
NIST researchers' pursuit of the next decimal place, the next level of accuracy, anticipates future measurement needs of science and industry. For example, NIST scientists have developed a next-generation atomic clock, which tracks time by a laser-cooled "fountain" of atoms. Made possible by fundamental advances in measurement science, including Nobel Prize-winning research by NIST physicist William Phillips, the clock is approximately three times more accurate than the atomic clock it replaces. The leap in accuracy would enable advances in navigation, communication, defense systems, and in areas unforeseeable from today's vantage point.
NIST's Gaithersburg, Md., headquarters and its campus in Boulder, Colo., house unique facilities and instruments, many of them crafted by measurement scientists to further their pursuit of increased accuracy. Consider the NIST Center for Neutron Research, a world-recognized facility for materials research. There, scientists use neutron-beam probes to study issues ranging from how one impurity in a trillion parts affects the performance of semiconductors to the design of more efficient catalysts. Every year, the Center for Neutron Research works with more than 1,400 researchers from companies, universities, and government agencies.
Setting Priorities, Delivering Results
Measurements and measurement techniques are tools to accomplish a wide range of practical ends. The private sector, however, typically under invests in efforts to improve measurement capabilities. While each company needs new measurement technologies and standards, the benefits resulting from improved capabilities often spill over to many firms, making it difficult for individual organizations to recover research investments.
NIST's strategy is to focus on areas of the greatest industrial need and on challenges requiring the laboratories' specialized expertise. Such challenges are beyond the capabilities and resources of individual firms. For example:
- NIST and partners from Sandia National Laboratories and the consortium SEMATECH recently developed a new reference material that has potential to leapfrog several generations of measurement needs forecast by semiconductor manufacturers. This reference material, which was evaluated by a consortium of 18 companies, is being proposed as tool for calibrating equipment that measures features as tiny as 100 nanometers--about 500 times thinner than a fine strand of human hair.
To set priorities, NIST representatives often work closely with U.S. industry in its technology planning efforts. Examples include the National Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative, Technology Vision 2020: The U.S. Chemical Industry, National Plan for Construction and Building R&D, and Next Generation Manufacturing Project. In addition, industrial advisory groups, such as the Council on Ionizing Radiation Measurements and Standards, regularly consult with NIST on key needs for measurement support.
Links to NIST's other major programs -- the Advanced Technology Program, Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and National Quality Program -- also serve as windows and pathways to a wide spectrum of existing and emerging industries with needs for measurement support.
Because measurements are a basic industrial need, shared even by competitors, cooperation and collaboration often are key to developing required tools and capabilities. Consortia are one approach to building measurement capabilities across organizations and industries. The NIST Measurement and Standards Laboratories coordinate the research and development activities of 12 consortia that teamed NIST with companies, universities, and other government laboratories. The focus of these efforts range from flowmeter installation effects (critical to ensuring accurate measurement of petrochemicals and other valuable fluid products) to optical properties of materials to monolithic microwave integrated circuits (to improve the effectiveness and affordability of microwave-based communications).
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Building and Fire Research
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Last Update: 7/25/06