Argonne scientists win Federal Laboratory Consortium Award for ultra-smooth
diamond film
ARGONNE, Ill. (Feb. 24, 2006) — Two scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's
Argonne National Laboratory are co-recipients of the 2006 Award for Excellence
in Technology Transfer from the Federal Laboratory Consortium.
The award
recognizes their work to develop and commercialize a novel diamond coating
technology, Ultrananocrystalline Diamond™ (UNCD™), which has enormous potential
for applications ranging from biomedical implants, high-band width telecommunication
systems, and micro/nano manufacturing. The technology has been licensed to
Advanced Diamond
Technologies, Inc. (ADT) of Champaign, Ill.
The Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer recognizes laboratory employees
who have accomplished outstanding work in the process of transferring a technology
developed by a federal laboratory to the commercial marketplace. A distinguished
panel of technology transfer experts from industry, state and local government,
academia, and the federal laboratory system evaluated the nominations.
UNCD is a form of carbon that capture's many of the properties of diamond
in thin film form but can be deposited on a wide variety of surfaces in thin
layers. UNCD consists of diamond grains only 5 nanometers in size. The average
human hair could contain 40,000 UNCD grains across its diameter. UNCD coatings
are as hard as single crystal diamond (the hardest known material on Earth),
but, unlike natural diamond, its properties can be adjusted and optimized for
a given application.
The material is a superb electrical insulator, but can also be made to be
highly conductive, and this conductivity can be tuned. This work has led to
the use of UNCD for biosensors that use electrochemical reactions to detect
biomolecules. It is also chemically inert and compatible with biological tissues,
traits that have led to promising research into prosthetic implants for the
eye as part of an artificial retina, as well as other bio-devices such as an
artificial pancreas.
Formed in 2003, ADT was the first Argonne start-up company owned by the laboratory
and the University of Chicago, establishing a new paradigm for technology
transfer at the laboratory. Argonne's John Carlisle and Orlando Auciello, the
scientific founders of ADT and the recipients of the 2006 FLC Award, both developed
the technology and worked closely with Argonne's Office of Technology Transfer
and the Illinois Technology Enterprise Center (ITEC)
to develop the new paradigm and spin-off ADT. Others involved include Neil
Kane, ADT co-founder and president, Stephen D. Ban, director of Argonne's Office
of Technology Transfer, Donald Joyce, Argonne's deputy director, and Alan Thomas
and Robert Rosenberg, both in the Office of the Vice President at the University
of Chicago.
“UNCD is a platform technology with numerous potential beneficial applications
in such areas as medicine, transportation and industrial production,” Ban said. “We
decided more value can be captured by establishing a company than licensing
individual patents piecemeal.”
The development of the device for producing UNCD received a 2003 R&D 100
award, given to the most innovative developments during the year.
“One of the goals of the national laboratories is to provide benefits to industry
and the public by moving discoveries into everyday use,” said Ban. “Spinning
off a company brings in private funds to take the risks of commercial development.
Such development leads to benefits for everyone, and demonstrates the value
of using tax dollars to support our early-stage scientific research.”
More information about Advanced Diamond Technologies can be found online at www.thindiamond.com.
Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology.
The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic
and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne
researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities,
and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific
problems, advance America 's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for
a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed
by UChicago
Argonne, LLC for
the U.S.
Department of Energy's Office
of Science.
For more information, please
contact Steve McGregor (630/252-5580 or media@anl.gov)
at Argonne.
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