Unique collaboration between researchers and companies in workshop 'Physics with Industry'
FOM, Technology Foundation STW and the Lorentz Center have joined forces for a unique collaboration between physicists and companies. From 11 to 15 October 2010 they are organising the first edition of the workshop 'Physics with Industry' at the Lorentz Center in Leiden. During this workshop, ASML, NXP, Teijin, NIZO and FrieslandCampina will each present a physics problem from daily practice and subsequently some 50 researchers will work on these for a week. With this workshop, FOM and STW want to bring the research world and the commercial sector closer together and increase their enthusiasm for further collaboration.
Workshop
Most of the participants at the five-day workshop are physics PhDs and postdocs. A number of senior researchers will also participate to safeguard the progress and scientific quality. They will work together in groups with researchers from one of the five participating companies. At the start of the week, the five problems will be presented and on the following days various group sessions will be held in which the researchers shall tackle their problems. After a week full of discussions, literature research, modelling and calculations the groups will present their results to the companies on Friday 15 October.
Physics problems
The problems to be presented originate from the R&D sections of companies. There were two important submission criteria: physics must be able to contribute to the problem and the period of one week must be long enough to tackle the subject. ASML, NXP, Teijin, NIZO and FrieslandCampina submitted the following cases:
ASML - Chip manufacturer ASML uses techniques such as immersion lithography to produce chips that are increasingly smaller, more powerful and more energy-efficient . Immersion lithography is a technique that etches the chip with the aid of light and lenses. In this process, a drop of water is applied between the lens and the chip material to increase the resolution with which the chip structures are depicted. Unfortunately, that water can cause considerable damage at other locations. ASML is now searching for an analytical model that predicts the ideal measurements of the drop so that leakage can be prevented.
NXP - The small electronic circuits in semiconductors can become severely damaged by electrostatic discharge . For example, a shock from a charged car door can damage the chip of your mobile phone. NXP would now like to know if metal 'nano-lightning conductors ' can protect such a circuit from electrostatic charging.
Teijin - During the production of Twaron®, a synthetic fibre, a heat treatment ensures the correct orientation of the molecules and the removal of fluid from the filaments the fibre is produced from. This process results in a distribution profile of filament properties. In order to understand and optimise this process, Teijin wants to quantify the influence of the temperature and the throughput of the filaments on the roll on the properties of the fibre.
NIZO - In order to produce food in a more environmentally-friendly manner and to reduce its calorific content, NIZO is investigating water-water interfaces. These are protein solutions which, despite having the same solvent (water), do not mix for thermodynamic reasons. NIZO would like to know how the properties of these interfaces change if the surface is deformed.
FrieslandCampina - FrieslandCampina sometimes adds extra substances to milk to increase its nutritional value. Unfortunately, these additives often react with substances in the milk. This makes the additives less effective and impairs the taste of the milk. FrieslandCampina is therefore looking for a way to shield the additives from the milk.
History
The workshop Physics with Industry is being organised for the first time in 2010. However, the formula is a tried and tested concept. Since 1968, annual mathematics workshops have been organised throughout the world by the 'International Study Group Mathematics with Industry'. These have proven to be very successful for both large and small companies. Besides the direct results obtained, these workshops have also led to new collaborative projects and researchers gaining employment at the participating companies.
FOM, Lorentz Center and STW
The Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) facilitates fundamental physics research in the Netherlands. One of FOM's objectives is to build bridges between the research world and the commercial sector. This is mainly realised via the Industrial Partnership Programmes, in which FOM researchers work with industrial partners over a period of several years. The workshop Physics with Industry can increase the enthusiasm of both researchers and companies for this type of collaboration. The Lorentz Center, which organises a wide range of workshops in the natural sciences, and Technology Foundation STW, which realises knowledge dissemination between technical sciences and users, are logical partners for this initiative.
Further information
About the programme: click on the website of the Lorentz Center.
About the content of the workshops: please contact Marcel Bartels telephone +31 (0)30 600 12 17 or Pieter de Witte telephone +31 (0)30 600 127 3, programme coordinators at FOM.
For press-related matters please contact Isabel Poyck +31 (0)30 600 12 21, communications adviser at FOM.