Tag Archives: Sean Barry

GreenCentre Canada births Precision Molecular Design Corporation

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An Aug. 9, 2013 news item on Azonano features Ontario Network of Excellence (ONE) member, Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) member, and business incubator, GreenCentre Canada,

GreenCentre Canada has recently incorporated its third spinoff company, Precision Molecular Design Corporation. Based on a technology invented at Carleton University, Precision Molecular Design’s proprietary ALD precursors enable “greener” production of smaller and faster microchips for the semiconductor industry.

The Aug. 8, 2013 GreenCentre Canada news release, which originated the news item, describes the innovation and the new company,

Precision Molecular Design’s breakthrough metal deposition technology allows manufacturers to generate circuit interconnects in successive layers one atom at a time. This will allow the semiconductor industry to develop the next generation of smaller microchips, ushering in new miracles of miniaturization. The technology will also enable the production of microchips with less waste and lower power consumption. For the consumer, this means longer battery life, more convenient sizing, less heat generation and a reduced carbon footprint.
Invented by Professor Sean Barry of Carleton, GreenCentre originally supported this breakthrough ALD technology with proof-of-principle funding of $16,000 and, in 2011, in-licensed the technology for continued commercial development. In 2012, GreenCentre licensed the technology to Digital Specialty Chemicals, a fine chemical manufacturer, to develop an industrial process to manufacture the precursors.

Precision Molecular is now looking for investors and partners for their precursors and offer development and contract services for the development of materials and processes for the ALD market.

Launched in July 2013, the Precision Molecular Design website is here.

As for its progenitor, GreenCentre Canada, here’s a little more about the organization from its About Us page (Note: Links have been removed),

Formed in 2009 and funded by the governments of Ontario and Canada, and industry, GreenCentre is a member of the Ontario Network of Excellence (ONE) and the Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR).  GreenCentre’s product and application development activities are housed in a 10,000 square foot facility dominated by state-of-the-art web labs with solvent-handling systems, inert atmosphere glove boxes and standard analytical equipment. GreenCentre is located at Innovation Park at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

The organization’s main focus is on developing green chemistry solutions and, presumably, new businesses.

Picosun Oy and atomic layer deposition (ALD)

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Finnish company, Picosun Oy, reports in a Jan. 2, 2012 news item on Nanowerk about a successful research project on solar cells undertaken as part of the European Union 7th Framework Programme. From the news item on Nanowerk,

… The goal of this multinational, inter-European, three years (2009-2011) project combining the efforts of both scientific and industrial partners has been to dramatically increase the efficiency of solar cells and reduce the costs of their manufacturing. This has been achieved with novel, innovative, silicon nanorod based concept. The amount of active photovoltaic material (Si) can be significantly reduced by growing the light-trapping nanorod “forests” (thickness from < 1µm to a few µm at most) on cheaper substrates such as glass or flexible foils. …

An ultrathin ALD-deposited Al2O3 film serves ideally this purpose, and the gas-phase, surface-controlled and self-limiting nature of the ALD process ensures that even the deepest and narrowest between-the-rods nooks and crannies will be reliably covered with 100 % uniform, conformal and pinhole- and defect-free passivation film. Another central cell component where ALD has shown its indispensability is the transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer that works as the current collector on the top of the cell. Different TCO deposition methods were investigated in the course of the project, and ALD turned out to be the ideal method regarding both the TCO film quality and the scalability of the technique, due to Picosun’s fast, efficient and easy-to-use HVM (High Volume Manufacturing) batch ALD system, which was developed specifically during the project ROD-SOL.

“Solar photovoltaics still remains one of the fastest growing industries in the world. To enable more efficient utilization of this free, clean energy, the efficiencies of the solar cells have to increase and their manufacturing costs decrease. ROD-SOL’s silicon nanorod cell concept shows promising potential to this, and we at Picosun have been especially satisfied of the ALD’s central role in realizing this novel, innovative, high efficiency solar electricity converter”, states Picosun’s Managing Director Juhana Kostamo.

More technical details are available in the news item on Nanowerk. I last wrote about Picosun Oy in a July 11, 2011 posting about a collaboration between the company and Carleton University researchers Sean Barry and Jason Coyle on a technique for plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition.

Carleton University and Picosun Oy develop new plasma-enhanced process for atomic layer depostion

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Finnish company, Picosun Oy along with Professor Sean Barry and Jason Coyle at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada) have developed a new process for atomic layer deposition (from the July 11, 2011 news item on Nanowerk),

Picosun Oy, Finland-based global manufacturer of state-of-the-art Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) equipment, reports successful process for preparation of gold thin films with plasma-enhanced ALD (PEALD) method first time in the world. Gold films were grown in Picosun’s SUNALE™ ALD reactor equipped with the same company’s Picoplasma™ plasma source system on top of ruthenium underlayers, from precursor chemicals developed and synthesized by Prof. Sean Barry and Ph.D. student Jason Coyle from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.

…

“Coinage metals (Cu, Ag, Au) are poised to play a significant role also in sensing technologies, where they will be crucial in signal enhancement and as anchor surfaces for organic sensing elements. Using plasma to deposit these metals as an ALD process widens drastically the deposition temperature window, permitting the employment of such sensitive substrates as modified fiber optic filaments and plastics. The design of the Picoplasma™ tool allows for excellent uniformity over a wide deposition area, while minimizing substrate damage from the plasma source”, states Prof. Barry from Carleton University.

Congratulations!