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NIST’s
new Advanced Measurement Laboratory is the most technically
advanced research facility of its kind in the world.
The $235 million, 49,843 square meter (536,507 square
foot) facility features five separate wings with
stringent environmental controls on air quality,
temperature, vibration, and humidity.
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Photos
and graphics on display in the AML gallery
Photos
of AML dedication
Considered
the most technically advanced research facility of its
kind in the world, the new Advanced Measurement Laboratory
(AML) dedicated today at the Commerce Department’s
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will
support some of the world’s most delicate experiments
in nanotechnology and measurement at the atomic level.
Commerce General Counsel and Deputy Secretary Designate
Theodore W. Kassinger, Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.), Rep.
Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Dr. John H. Marburger III,
director of the White House Office of Science and Technology
Policy, were among the participants in the formal opening
ceremony today at the NIST campus in Gaithersburg, Md.
The $235
million, 49,843 square meter (536,507 square foot) Advanced
Measurement Laboratory features five separate wings—two
of them buried 12 meters (39 feet) under ground—with
stringent environmental controls on air quality, temperature,
vibration, and humidity. The new facility allows NIST to provide
the sophisticated measurements and standards needed by U.S.
industry and the scientific community for key 21st century
technologies such as nanotechnology, semiconductors, biotechnology,
advanced materials, quantum computing and advanced manufacturing.
“At the end of the day, our nation and our citizens
will be safer, healthier and more productive as a result
of the work that will be done here,” Kassinger said.
He noted that the United States faces challenging global
competition, stating, “We need every edge we can get;
combined with our talented, dedicated personnel, this laboratory
is an edge like no other.”
The construction
of the AML was itself a research effort even before ground
was broken in June 2000. Institute scientists
created “testbed” laboratories to try out concepts
for some of the building’s most exacting specifications
in temperature and vibration control. While the majority
of the building’s laboratory spaces can be temperature-controlled
to within a quarter of a degree Celsius, some highly isolated
lab modules can be controlled to within a hundredth of a
degree.
Special features of the facility include:
- 338
reconfigurable laboratory modules;
- a
Class 100 (3.5 particles per cubic liter of air) cleanroom,
the
8,520 square-meter (91,700 square-foot) nanofabrication
facility that will be operated as a user facility for
research by industry, government and academic researchers;
- enhanced
air quality – air fed to the AML
laboratories is filtered with HEPA (high efficiency particulate
air) technology, delivering about a thousand-fold improvement
in air cleanliness over NIST’s existing general
purpose laboratories;
- temperature
control – from baseline temperature
control within ±0.25 degree Celsius to within ±0.1
or ±0.01 degree Celsius for 48 precision temperature-control
laboratories;
- vibration
isolation – from
a baseline velocity amplitude of 3 micrometers per
second or less down to 0.5
micrometer per second in 27 low-vibration modules;.
- humidity
control – from a baseline of ± 5
percent down to ± 1 percent in special laboratory
sections;
- electrical
power filtering – AML-wide uninterruptible
power supply prevents outages and counters voltage spikes,
drop-outs and other “dirty power” problems
that limit accuracy and precision, reduce analytical
sensitivity
and cause long-running experiments to crash; and
- “green building” features – natural
daylighting, energy conservation and recycling were emphasized
in AML design and operation.
NIST research efforts planned for the new facility range
from improved calibrations and measurement of fundamental
quantities such as mass, length and electrical resistance
to the development of quantum computing technology, nanoscale
measurement tools, integrated micro-chip-level technologies
for measuring individual biological molecules, and experiments
in nanoscale chemistry.
The AML was designed by HDR Architecture Inc. of Alexandria,
Va., and constructed by Clark/Gilford, a joint venture of
The Clark Construction Group Inc. of Bethesda, Md., and Gilford
Corporation of Beltsville, Md.
As a non-regulatory
agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s
Technology Administration, NIST develops and promotes measurement,
standards, and technology to enhance productivity, facilitate
trade and improve the quality of life.
More
details are on-line at www.nist.gov/public_affairs/amlbrochure.htm.
A gallery of AML photos and graphics (with captions and
high-resolution versions) is available at www.nist.gov/public_affairs/aml/aml_graphics_gallery.htm.
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