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AIIR Computer Science and Electronics
Introduction
Advanced Innovative Interdisciplinary Research - A High Technology Corporation
AIIR is a newly-formed high technology development company in the State of Virginia. AIIR is comprised of an interdisciplinary team of engineers, scientists, and technologists with expertise in complementary high technology fields, including optics, optoelectronics, polymer science, coating technology, memory metals, ceramics, biomedical engineering, superconductors, and data storage systems. The primary objectives of AIIR are development and commercialization of NASA materials and devices that enable successful technology transfer.
Today, an important part of NASA's mission is to transfer technology to the private sector. AIIR has developed a relationship with NASA through several Memorandums of Agreement, and this interaction is expected to allow AIIR to remain at the cutting edge of materials-based technologies. The NASA-Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia is a world-recognized leader in materials technology, and two members of the AIIR management team are currently based there. Because of a unique material innovation made by AIIR, there exists an opportunity to fundamentally advance the computer data storage industry, which has a pressing need for precisely such an advance and is actively seeking new solutions.
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General Opportunity - AIIR's Unique Technology
A one-of-a-kind polyimide material being called "Integrity" is the material basis for AIIR's technologies. This unique amorphous thermoplastic was developed by Dr. R. Bryant at NASA-Langley Research Center. Integrity-based products have the potential to generate large profits with applications in a broad range of markets. This potential derives from the unique properties of Integrity, including extreme mechanical toughness, corrosion resistance, high adhesive strength, ability to go into solution for solvent casting and spray-coating, high softening temperature, excellent hot-melt flow characteristics, light weight, and high thermal stability.
These properties confer desirable characteristics that are exclusive among existing thermoplastics. It is easily machined into intricate parts using conventional equipment, and permits polishing to fine finishes without surface void generation or development of surface porosity. It can be dissolved for spray-coating or solvent casting, and cannot be re-dissolved after setting once above 2500C, again a unique property among thermoplastics. Alone or combined with other materials, it can be used for electromagnetic interference shielding and resilient optical coatings. Multilayer coatings can be produced for electronic circuits, including selected dielectric or conducting properties without the use of additional adhesives.
Integrity can be used as a binder with many materials, including plastic particles, graphite, ceramics, metals, and diamond. The resulting composite materials offer unique performance, such as abrasion resistance, radiation shielding, or piezoactivity for use in ultrasonics, sensors, and actuators. Its thermal stability and corrosion resistance allow it to be used in harsh environments. finally, the material is remoldable and completely recyclable, so that in many uses, it represents an environmentally sustainable technology.
A patent on material composition for Integrity has been filed, and is expected to be issued in September, 1995. The unique properties of this amorphous thermoplastic are summarized above, and data on its physical, electrical, and mechanical properties are given in the NASA fact sheets. We elaborate here on the key properties that offer technological advantages over other existing materials.
Its usefulness as a binder for other materials allows other materials to be incorporated into the resin, producing increased hardness, lower coefficient of thermal expansion, decreased friction, higher compressive strength, and improved wear resistance. A particular property of interest for hard disk applications is the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) for the pure Integrity material: CTE = 4.6 x 10-5/0C. This should match fairly well to the CTE for current hard disk magnetic coatings, which is a Nickel-Iron mixture(70/30% mixture) with a CTE = 7.84 x 10-6/0C. If thermal testing shows unacceptable microdeformation due to thermal mismatch, the CTE of the integrity material can be matched more closely by adding graphite to decrease the CTE. This ability to "tailor" properties of the material is a unique asset of Integrity.
The dielectric constant can be similarly tailored to applications, and values as low as 1.3 have been achieved, suggesting significant applications in electromagnetic shielding or isolation. AIIR has been approached by a military contractor to perform Integrity-coating of computer cases for electromagnetic interference shielding. Varying degrees of electrical conductivity can be achieved by using selected additives, permitting the fabrication of multilayer electronic boards or devices, without the use of additional adhesives. The glass transition temperature of 2500C is high enough to prevent undesirable transformations at hard disk operating temperatures (normally 10-800C).
The melt-flow properties of Integrity permit extrusion, injection, and compression molding, and fiber melt spinning. It has been used as a hot-melt adhesive to bond a variety o f metals, ceramics, and polyimide films. In addition, it has been blended with commercial printed circuit board (PCB) resins too provide multilayer PCBs with increased shear strength and durability at elevated temperatures.
Integrity has been used to create ultrathin composite coatings by combining different materials with the sprayable solution. Metals, synthetic diamond, graphite, plastic, and ceramic powders are just a few of the materials that have been combined and sprayed using conventional techniques. Initial applications for these coatings include thermal curtains, antioxidant coatings, ultrasonic transducers, and filtration systems. A water purification system manufacturer has issued a contract of AIIR for filter coatings.
One of the most useful properties of the Integrity polymer is that it can be processed as the fully imidized polymer. Typically, polyimides must be processed as the polyamide acid intermediate and undergo imidization after fabrication. This requires extra preparation time and temperatures above its softening point of 2500C, it cannot be re-dissolved, yet it maintains its amorphous character and melt processability. This property is unique among thermoplastics, and allows Integrity to form solvent resistant multilayer coatings. Moreover, the coatings are stable at temperatures from cryogenic to at least 2000C. This truly unique combination of properties makes Integrity significant among polyimide thermoplastics. It has demonstrated potential to improve existing products and enable new technologies.
The basic repeat unit in the Integrity polymer is very unique, in that its structure-property relationship is strikingly different than even its nearest structural analogs. Also, Dr. Bryant has extensively tested different percentage blends of the base monomers, as well as compounds exhibit the unique behavior of Integrity - specifically its amorphous (as opposed to semi-crystalline) structure, its solubility in common solvents, its mechanical properties, and its thermal stability (high glass transition temperature).
Other skilled polymer chemists would probably not be able to produce a similar compound by "rational design" procedures based on fundamental principles, because the basic reasons for the properties exhibited by Integrity are poorly understood at this time. A partial hypothesis for the unique properties has been advanced: it is possible that the co-polymer chaining "backbone" is able to assume a thermodynamically stable conformation in the original solution with many random twists along the chaining, conferring the high solubility unique to this material (which allows it to be easily sprayed, etc.).
After being heated once above its glass transition temperature, the backbone chain may assume a more regular, inflexible, highly stable conformation upon cooling, rendering it insoluble, and resistant to most solvents, with the noted superior mechanical properties. This hypothesis is supported by NMR testing and interpretation have been performed by Dr. R. Vold (an international authority on NMR, currently at William and Mary) and supported by Dr. St. Clair and Dr. Bryant at NASA.
Additional evidence supports our belief that the material is unlikely to be duplicated easily. Dr. Bryant, with other NASA scientists, has in recent years prepared a large array of polyimides based on every commercially available diamine and dianhydride (the basis for polyimides). This produced a series of some 50 polyimide resins, but only one was soluble (Integrity), with the ability to reorganize into the insoluble form. Therefore, outside attempts to duplicate the material by this sort of "mix and match" approach would likely not be productive, because it has already been tried.
As noted above, a "rational design" (e.g. alteration of a rod length or swivel unit in the diamine or synthesis of an alternate, flexible dianhydride) is also not likely to be successful, because the basic structure-property relationship is poorly understood. As a further example of this point, note that the prior art of both St. Clair and of Tamai are actually very close to the structure of the Integrity material, but with one subunit modified in each case. The result is that those materials are semicrystalline, and have inferior solubility, mechanical properties, and thermal stability. In fact, they have properties that are predictable based on current knowle dge.
If an attempt were made to rationally predict the properties of Integrity based o n its chemical structure - a semicrystalline material with a lower glass transition temperature and lower mechanical strength would be predicted. As noted, Integrity is in fact not semicrystalline, but amorphous, is soluble to a greater degree, and is stronger and more stable than predicted. Each of these unexpected properties is critical to its use in AIIR' s app licat ions.
Further, we have briefly assessed the polymer science groups within several of the large existing competitor companies, and concluded that there is a relatively small base of qualified polymer chemists who might attempt such a re-design of a competitor material. This includes DuPont, who have recently lost significant scientific personnel in the polymer group, Dow, who may have 2-3 people, Celanese, who appear to have no capability, and IBM, who have nearly eliminated research activity.
Therefore, AIIR had the technical support of one of the pre-eminent polymer science groups in the U.S., specifically NASA-Langley, with the participation of Dr. St. Clair and Dr. Bryant. A related point is that the base patent is government property, and therefore infringement issues will be handled by the Justice Department and by the Treasury Department (for offshore competition).
Regarding the prior art referenced in the patent text, each of the 3 materials has significantly different properties than Integrity. The material of Meterko is made by Oxychem, a division of Occidental Petroleum, and is supplied to lSumitomo Electric of Japan for a bonding application in microelectronics (bonding of silicon chips to the package prior to soldering the connections). It cannot be purchased commercially. The material of St. Clair (chief polymer chemist at NASA-Langley, and a member of AIIR's advisory board) is produced by Imitec at about the same price as Integrity.
The material of Tamai is made by MitsuiToaTsu of Japan. The difference between these materials and Integrity is that these polymers are semicrystalline, insoluble, and must be cast or used in their pre-imidized form, which liberates water upon curing. Also, these materials need to be cured, which leads to a need for complex heating cycles. Integrity is also inherently tougher with about 50% better mechanical properties such as tensile and shear strength. Integrity's glass transition temperature is also higher, typically by about 20-300C.
Some other possibly competitive polyimide materials
that are produced commercially are:
Ciba-Geigy XU218, which has a prohibitive cost ($1/gram), is not
thermally stable, is a poor adhesive, absorbs moisture up to at
least 5% (Integrity does not), 50% lower mechanical strength,
lower softening point,, and is soluble only in chloroform (which
has been severely regulated as an ozone-depleting chemical).
General Electric "Ultem", which has an amortized cost of $7/lb (inexpensive), and shares each of the limitations listed above for XU218, including poor thermal stability. These have been made soluble by addition of aliphatic subunits - thus they are examples of attempts to "design" for desirable properties, but without achieving the unique combination of Integrity's properties.
AIIR has concluded that among the many potential applications for Integrity, its use as the principal material component in computer hard disks has the greatest short-term potential. The vast majority of current hard disks are made of aluminum, with extremely poor manufacturing yields (lower than 35%). The aluminum disks have reached their thickness limit at about 30 thousands of an inch (30 mils) and cannot be made any thinner with the necessary stiffness to insure reliable head travel above the surface for accurate data readout and recording.
Even at their current thickness, the disks are fragile and are not well-suited for the rigorous mechanical conditions encountered in the use of portable computers. The manufacture of Integrity-based hard disks could solve each of these problems, and would fundamentally advance data storage capability by allowing more data to be stored on thinner, smaller-diameter disks with exceptional shock-resistance and ability to withstand the forces imparted by high speed disk revolutions. These capabilities translate into product quality advantages such as small disk drive size and weight, portability, reliability, durability, and faster data access times.
In the long term, these mechanical advantages of the Integrity disks are expected to be combined with increased data storage density in improved magnetic coatings (already available) to produce a revolution in electronic data storage by allowing massive data storage in small portable devices such as telephones or miniature video pagers.
The Electronic Data Storage Industry
Market Drivers and Trends
With the advent of the "information revolution" and rapid development of the "global village", computer data storage capability has been thrust into the center stage of almost all technological product development. There is an ever-increasing need to store massive amounts of data on smaller, more portable, durable devices. Massive data handling capacity is needed, in particular, for the efficient transmission, storage, and retrieval of video images and other complex signals. Such large data sets are expected to be used in the entertainment business, personal and business communications, telemedicine, remote sensing for environmental monitoring, and military data-gathering and control systems.
The ability of computers to store data is critically dependent on the "areal density" of available memory on the computer hard disk. The areal density for a given disk is the amount of information that can be stroed per square inch, and is governed by the quality of the magnetic substrate, which is aluminum in current applications. It is the material composing the mechanical substrate that this Plan addresses. Industry-standard magnetic coatings currently support the storage of 500Mbits (megabits or millions of data bits) per sq. in., but coatings are available that would provide up to 10 Gbits (gigabits or billions of data bits) per sq. in., and the industry standard is increasing at about 30% per year.
These new developments will allow storage of massive data in small areas, but only if a disk material is found that is mechanically stable even at very small thicknesses and supports the stresses of high speed revolution. For a given magnetic coating standard, the amount of data that can be stored inside a hard drive device is determined by the total available disk surface area. Therefore, to store more data in a particular size drive device (form factor), one must decrease the thickness of the disk, so that more disks can be stacked inside the device. With the trend toward increasing use of smaller, more portable computers, the only way to store large amounts of information is to make thinner, smaller diameter disks with high areal density magnetic coatings. This trend is expected to open new avenues for data storage in devices other than "computers". For example, one long term aim is to put a disk drive in every telephone.
Computer Hard Disk Market - Opportunity
The hard disks utilized in today's computer systems are extremely delicate structures. Typical dimensions are 3.5 inches in diameter with a thickness of 30-35 thousands of an inch (30-35 mil). The vast majority are composed of aluminum, with a few specialty disks composed of glass-ceramics. The current industry trend is to move over the next few years to 2.5 inch diameter disks, for use in smaller devices. Our primary target market is the 2.5 inch disk market. Consider an example demonstrating the storage capacity of a 2.5 inch disk: with current memory density of 500 Mbits per sq. in., each disk surface can hold about 2200 Mbits, or 280 Mbytes (the consumer term for disk storage).
p>If the disk drive contains 3 of these disks, and we assume that 5 disk surfaces are used for data storage (with one surface reserved for control functions), then the total disk drive capacity is 1400 Mbytes, or 1.4 Gbytes. Such disk drives are now on the market as standard equipment in personal computers. However, to support increasing data storage needs, the current disk technology is fundamentally restricted by the inadequate properties of the aluminum substrate.
Aluminum disks may not be made any thinner, because they lack the stiffness to maintain their surface smoothness at thicknesses less than 30 mil. Surface smoothness is needed for accurate head travel (or "flying height") over the surface for reliable data transfer to the disk. Aluminum disks are not resistant to shocks, as often occur in portable computer transport, and can be damaged easily. The current speed of revolution of hard disks is 7200 rpm (revolutions per minute). Any rotating object is subjected to forces due to the torque applied to the disk, and these forces tend to shear the disk apart. Aluminum can only withstand the shearing force produced by about 20,000 rpm without breaking apart, and even at 10,000 rpm (the desired industry standard) they are easily damaged by the clamping force needed to hold the disk in place at that higher speed. This damage causes microcracking and leads to fretting erosion of the surface, ruining the head-surface interface. It is also desired to increase the disk rpm to 50,000 rpm in the future, allowing faster data access. A new material concept is needed to support these speeds.
Other available materials are not usable for this application. Plastics have been unacceptable because their glass transition temperature is too low, or their coefficient of thermal expansion is too high. High thermal expansion coefficients allow the disk to expand with increasing temperature at a different rate than the expansion of the magnetic recording coating, producing distortions in the recording surface. Glass-ceramics have been studied, and the industry is prepared to invest substantially to develop a workable solution. Seagate, the largest disk manufacturer in the U.S., recently invested over $4 million in a Dow/Corning venture to develop such a disk, but glass-ceramics have been brittle, chemically unstable, unreliable, and expensive, so aluminum still dominates the market.
New disk candidates are put through an industry standard "Four Corners" test, involving defined extremes of temperature and humidity. The temperature range is from 10 to 800C, and glass-ceramics typically fail the high temperature/high humidity part of the test. Hard carbon disks would be functional, but are too expensive. Silicon carbide disks have been introduced (by our collaborators, Advanced Optical Exploration & Technology), and have excellent stiffness, but only a prohibitively expensive chemical vapor deposition process ($50 per disk) can be used to produce acceptable surface texture.
The size of the market is conservatively estimated by considering the output of U.S. disk drive manufacturers, including DEC, Western Digital, Maxtor, Komag, IBM, Seagate, Micropolis, Apple, Quantum, and Conner Periph erals. Total U.S. disk drive shipments are forecast to be 85 million in 1996, requiring about 250 million disks per annum, assuming an average of 3 disks per disk drive. The global production (including Mitsubishi, Kyocera, and HMT-Hitachi Metals Technology) is larger, and expected growth is 20% per annum. This represents the number of disks actually "yielded" from disk manufacturing operations.
A further limitation of aluminum disk technology is that the yields are notoriously low, usually less than 35%. Thus, the number of manufactured aluminum disks is actually about 750 million per annum, with losses of 60-70%. This is economically undesirable, and a potential solution should produce better yields, cutting costs substantially, while supporting higher prices for teh new solution. Aluminum disks currently sell for about $1 per disk, so a new disk material would support a price of $3 while also offering cost savings to the manufacturers.
Because of these limitations, the entire computer industry worldwide is actively looking for a method to make a thinner, stiffer hard disk. As a specific example, an opportunity has been identified at Conner Peripherals (one of the largest disk drive manufacturers) to test new Integrity-based prototypes. Connor currently produces at least 24 million disks per annum, and is expected to install new equipment capacity to produce over 72 million disks per annum within the next year. Connor had over $2 billion in overall sales in 1994, and is respected as an industry leader in the trend toward increasing computer portability and reliability. This kind of industry-wide window of opportunity is rare, and AIIR's Integrity disks offer a viable solution. Entry into the market through a respected disk drive manufacturer is part of our current marketing strategy.
Computer Hard Disk Market - AIIR Solution
AIIR has worked to develop new materials, a vital component of which is Integrity, for the production of improved hard disks with significantly superior stiffness at the required thickness (20 mil), surface characteristics, light weight, and thermal properties. The primary target market is the 2.5 inch disk, but other disk sizes (such as 48 mm diameter) can be produced easily. The dimensions of the target disk are: 2.5 inch (65 mm) outer diameter, 0.75 inch (19 mm) central hole diameter, and 20 thousands of an inch (20 mil) thickness. These are typically used in portable computers, and present the most difficult design restrictions on aluminum disks. the rotation speed requirement is 10,000 rpm. This higher speed rotation allows hard disk access times to be significantly reduced, yielding faster computer performance.
Integrity-based hard disks will be prototyped in 3 different configurations:
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Competition
Competing material technology for computer hard disk manufacture was discussed in detail above under Computer Hard Disk Market - Opportunity. Competing technology includes aluminum, silicon carbide by chemical vapor deposition, hard carbon, and glass-ceramics. All have lower production yields, poorer durability, or higher cost than Integrity-based disks. Major manufacturers of hard disk drives with interest in developing competing technology are Seagate, Western Digital, Maxtor, Komag, IBM, Micropolis, Apple, Mitsubishi, Kyocera, Hitachi, Quantum, and Connor Peripherals. Seagate made a 1995 agreement with Sony to develop a new disk media known as "Pre-Embossed Rigid Magnetic (PERM)" media. The entire computer industry is currently looking for an alternative hard disk substrate material.
TECHNOLOGY SELECTION RECOMMENDATION
NASA/Langley Research Center LaRC-SI and Ciba-Geigy XU-480
This material will be evaluated for use in all three components of the battery. LaRC-SI, used interchangably with Ciba-Geigy XU-480. Polyimides in general, and LaRC-SI specifically, have been shown suitable for manufacture of adhesiveless, flexible multilayer printed circuit boards. In a battery it is desired to have no \par foreign contaminants (adhesives), flexibility in order to be shaped into the desired form factor, and multilayers (anode, separator/electrolyte, cathode). All of the benefits of this technology apply directly to making high performance batteries.
In a battery, the anode and cathode must be electrically separated and LaRC-SI has a high dielectric constant, meeting this requirement. Ionic mobility of lithium ions is the next
requirement and this needs to be proven to be feasible in LaRC-SI. This is noted elsewhere as a critical action step. \par \par To maintain homogeneity of the battery materials, LaRC-SI will also serve as the anode and cathode binder materials holding graphite and spinel (manganese oxide) respectively to copper oraluminum current collectors.
LaRC-SI's high glass transition temperature is also excellent for battery use, since this will allow immobilization of materials on a physical scale (not on an ionic scale), thus resulting in a \par highly safe battery that can be mutilated without any leakage or hazards.
The cost of LaRC-SI has been projected at $2 to $5 for resin in greater than 10,000 lbs. quantities. Based on a utilization of 12g per 1.2Ah cell, these figures equate to $0.053 and $0.132 per cell. Since usage will be 80,000 lbs. in year 3, the low end of this range is appropriate for cost estimation. This compares favorably with the cost of resin in the Bellcore technology, which is estimated at $0.06 per cell. All other materials, except the carbon described below will be equivalent to those used in the Bellcore technology, which is expected to be the competing technology.
NASA Lewis modified carbon anode
Dr. Ching-Cheh Hung at NASA Lewis has developed modified carbon materials that have been shown to allow a high level of incorporation of lithium ions. The theoretical capacity of a lithium (carbon) anode is 372mAh/g. This is based on a ratio of one lithium ion, in the ideal graphitic structure, for every six carbon atoms. By modifying the carbon, a ratio higher than one to six can be achieved.
Dr. Hung has established that he can insert three to four lithium ions per six carbons. This could provide an anode capacity of 1116mAh/g to 1488mAh/g. Each improvement in the anode capacity allows a corresponding increase in cathode material to be used, thus resulting in a higher capacity battery.
In theory, using a LiMn2O4 cathode, the anode is increased from 372mAh/g to 1488mAh/g, which will result in a corresponding increase in the capacity of the battery by three-fold. Thus an 18650 size battery (currently rated at 1.2Ah and 3.6V) will achieve 13Wh compared to about 4.5Ah in currently produced cells.
In the typical lithium-ion cell, an excess of LiMn2O4 is added and a charge/formation step is required to remove lithium from the cathode and intercalate it in the anode. This step would not be required if lithium can be formed within the carbon matrix prior to cell assembly. The assumption is made that the costs of producing this modified carbon will not exceed those costs of carbon, plus formation to intercalate lithium ions, used in other lithium-ion polymer batteries.
Bellcore
Bellcore (formerly Bell Laboratories) has developed a laminated battery structure utilizing polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF)-hexafluoro propylene (HFP) copolymer. This technology is fully developed and a license includes two days of training in battery manufacture using the Bellcore technology, plus equipment and materials for making electrodes, battery assemblies and packaging. Cost of a license is $1 million, with royalties beginning at 8%. Bellcore has licensed seven companies world-wide, with four of these in the U.S. These are Gould (Japanese owned), Valence, Ultralife and ABI. Other manufacturers will probably purchase licenses also. There is an alternative licensing program that reduces the royalty rate, but at the cost of an additional $2.5 million in license fees. Prototype assembly could begin within a \par very short time frame (less than one month after licensing).
This technology would be advantageous as a proven dry lithium-ion battery technology that could allow rapid start-up, followed by the incorporation of proprietary Andromeda materials, thus providing a performance edge. The disadvantage would be the payment of a royalty and the initial license fee.
Japanese lithium-ion technology
It is possible to acquire Japanese know-how for the production of liquid lithium-ion cells, including start-up help at a cost of approximately $500,000 plus the cost of equipment, which can be obtained from the same source. This could be utilized to accelerate the development program, even though the Andromeda materials would be different. However, there would be some risk in adapting liquid technology to the gel AIIR concept.
OTHER TECHNOLOGIES
Optical Parts
AIIR plans to use Integrity or another proprietary thermoplastic material to produce optical parts for a broad range of applications, including optical instruments for extreme environments, airport runway landing lights, and optoelectronics. We target primarily small optical components such as optical flats, prisms, and refractive elements. The opportunity exists for immediate penetration into this $500 million per annum market because of significant product quality advantages. Current optical quality plastics such as acrylics are not solvent-resistant or environmentally-stable, so cleaning in service is difficult and service life is limited.
AIIR product advantages are excellent optical quality, durability, at least 25% lighter weight, lower coefficient of thermal expansion, and significantly reduced production times because precision parts can be molded. they can be cleaned with acetone, allowing cleaning in service and prolongation of service life. Through our collaborator in this market (Advanced Optical Exploration & Technology), several customers for these parts have been identified. One customer projects an order of 5,000 lbs per month and ramping up to 10,000 parts per month, and a third customer has ordered 10 different molds and 16,000 parts per month.
Profits of $2.5 million per annum are estimated based on production of 800,000 parts per annum within 2 years of capitalization. This is a conservative estimate based on limited orders already considered by customers. AIIR plans to license the production of these parts and collect royalties on sales.
Long-range Technology Development
The potential market for other Integrity-based technologies exceeds $20 billion. Because the market for other high-technology products is much larger than for computer hard disks or optical parts alone, AIIR believes it will be essential to maintain a state-of-the-art research and develop ment Prot otyping Laboratory. This Laboratory is an essential component of Stage 1 development, and will allow AIIR to bri ng the hard disk to marke t and then shift some effort of new product and patent development in other areas.
These areas include smart materials for sensors and actuators, lubricants, pumps, valves, coatings, bearings, motors, medical devices, and alternative data storage devices such as telephones. In the lubricant area, for example, AIIR i s developing proprieta r y emulsificatio n techni qu es to s uspend Integrity particles in oils - the Integrity polyimide is know to be a superior high temperature lubricant compared to commercially available products that are based on Teflon.
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