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Product Development Excellence - This award will be given to the product that shows the most innovation and cutting-edge technology.

Best Technology - This award will be given to the technology that has the most promise of impacting/improving the Magnetics Industry.

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Using Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy (MRFM), IBM researchers have demonstrated two-dimensional imaging of objects as small as 90 nanometers, a key advancement on the path of 3D imaging at the atomic scale. Such imaging could ultimately provide a better understanding of how proteins function, which in turn may lead to more efficient drug discovery and development.

“Our ultimate goal is to perform three-dimensional imaging of complex structures such as molecules with atomic resolution,” said Dan Rugar, manager, Nanoscale Studies, IBM Research. “This would allow scientists to study the atomic structures of molecules, such as proteins, which would represent a huge breakthrough in structural molecular biology."

MRFM offers imaging sensitivity that is 60,000 times better than current magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology. MRFM uses what is known as force detection to overcome the sensitivity limitations of conventional MRI to view structures that would otherwise be too small to be detected.
To achieve this, the research team developed specialized magnetic tips for their microscope, optimizing their ability to manipulate and detect the very weak magnetism of atomic nuclei. Conventional medical MRI typically operates on a scale at least 1,000 times coarser - even the most specialized MRI microscopy is limited to about 3 micrometers, or 3,000 nanometers.

This achievement could eventually have major impact on the study of materials, ranging from proteins and pharmaceuticals to integrated circuits, for which a detailed understanding of the atomic structure is essential. Knowing the exact location of specific atoms within tiny nanoelectronic structures, for example, would enhance designers' insight into manufacture and performance. The ability to directly image the detailed atomic structure of proteins would aid the development of new drugs.

For more than a decade, IBM researchers have been making pioneering advancements in MRFM. With this latest achievement, the team is now able to make images with as few as 103 atoms as opposed to the 108 atoms required to make an image with today’s MRI technology. This improved sensitivity extends MRI into the nanometer realm. (The nanometer realm is typically considered to be at dimensions below 100 nanometers; a nanometer is a billionth of a meter, the length spanned by about 5 to10 atoms.)

IBM Research has a distinguished history in developing microscopes for nanoscale imaging and science. Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer of IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics for their invention of the scanning tunneling microscope, which can image individual atoms on electrically conducting surfaces.

The report on this work, “Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging with 90-nm resolution,” by H. J. Mamin1, M. Poggio1,2, C. L. Degen1 and D. Rugar1 at IBM Research Division1, Almaden Research Center, San Jose, California and the Center for Probing the Nanoscale, Stanford University2 appeared in the April 22 issue of Nature Nanotechnology.

Bodine Electric Company Offers New Digital PWM Controlled INTEGRAmotor

Bodine Electric Company, a manufacturer of AC induction, permanent magnet DC and brushless DC motors, gearmotors and controls, recently introduced a new digital Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) controlled version of its INTEGRAmotor line of standard products. INTEGRAmotors combine all four elements of a typical motion control system – a control, a brushless DC motor, a gearhead and an optical encoder – into one compact package. The all-in-one design reduces wiring hassles, assembly time, and cost, as well as minimizes EMI.

Bodine’s new PWM models combine a 24 VDC brushless DC motor with a built-in open loop voltage mode PWM controller. PWM controls digitally encode analog signal levels by using high-resolution counters. These counters convert the analog signal into a series of digital pulses of DC current. Compared to analog controls, digital PWM controls can significantly lower system costs and power consumption. The Bodine controls used in the type 22B/FV or 34B/FV INTEGRAmotors accept PWM input from an external motion controller or Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). They feature amplifier enable, direction input, dynamic braking and a built-in 256PPR and a 2-channel encoder.

“The INTEGRA represents an inexpensive way for OEMs to get all their motion control needs met in one compact package,” said Mike Marhoefer, Engineering manager for BLDC and Control Technology. “It represents Bodine’s long-term commitment to innovation - nobody else has anything quite like it.”

The INTEGRAmotors are designed for applications that would typically require more costly stepper or high-end servo systems, such as office equipment, packaging machines, conveyor systems, medical equipment, graphics machinery and factory automation.

Probe to Detect Spread of Breast Cancer Co-Developed By UH Scientist
Device to Locate Magnetic Nanoparticles in Lymph Nodes

High-temperature superconductors hold the key to a handheld tool for surgeons that promises to be more accurate, cost-effective and safer than existing methods for staging and treating various cancers, including breast cancer.

Audrius Brazdeikis, research assistant professor of physics in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Houston and Quentin Pankhurst, a professor of physics from the University College of London (UCL), have developed a novel detection procedure combining nanotechnology and advanced magnetic sensing based on high-temperature superconductors. Their innovation will enable surgeons to more effectively locate the sentinel lymph node – the first lymph node to which a tumor’s metastasizing cancer cells will drain.

The researchers produced an ultrasensitive magnetic probe to detect minuscule magnetic fields in the body. The probe is a supersensitive magnetometer, an instrument used to track the presence of clinically introduced magnetic nanoparticles. During breast cancer surgery, a surgeon will inject a magnetic nanoparticle dye, already approved as an imaging contrast agent by the Food and Drug Administration, into the tumor or into tissues surrounding the tumor.

Receiving a $250,000 grant to be used from 2004 to 2006 from the United Kingdom Department of Trade and Industry under the UK-Texas Bioscience Collaboration Initiative, Brazdeikis and Pankhurst were required to show “proof of concept” by building a device and showing it worked. An ethics committee in the UK since has approved the detection procedure for a clinical trial of women undergoing breast cancer surgery at University College Hospital, London.

Dr. Michael Douek, a London surgeon who specializes in breast surgery and is a senior lecturer at UCL, is overseeing the trial and used the probe for the first time in surgery in December. Douek, who visited Houston recently in preparation for the testing, said that the ethics committee gave the hospital permission to use the probe in 10 surgeries and that after a review of those procedures, the number could increase to 100.

“We expect to start new clinical trials in Japan and Europe before the end of 2007,” said Brazdeikis. “Our technology will be extensively validated by different surgeons in various countries.”

Brazdeikis, who heads the Biomedical Imaging Group at the Texas Center for Superconductivity at UH (TcSUH), said a goal of the grant was to commercialize biomedical technology developed at universities through collaborative research. He and Pankhurst, deputy director of the London Centre for Nanotechnology, have formed a medical devices company, Endomagnetics, Inc, to bring their technology to the marketplace and patented the probe.

“The company plans to roll out the production of the technology in 2008,” said Brazdeikis. “We hope that in the next two to three years practice assisted with our new probe will become more widely adopted by surgeons.”

Endomagnetics also already has garnered recognition from such key world figures as England’s Prince Andrew, his country’s special representative for international trade and investment, who highlighted new technology developed by the nanotechnology industry at the Nano-TX ’06 conference in Dallas. He cited the UH-UCL collaboration and Endomagnetics’ as an “exciting example of the early stages of this kind of progress.”

“The partnership has resulted in a technology used to locate lymph nodes for the staging and treatment of various forms of cancer, including breast cancers and melanomas, and some of the more disfiguring and demoralizing forms of cancer,” he said, according to a transcript of his remarks.

“Although the technology has potential for use in the staging and treatment of other cancers, including lung and prostate cancer, the instrument needs to be customized for the type of surgery,” said Douek, who has advised the researchers from the beginning of the probe’s development. “We went through a whole series of different probes during the course of a year. I was interested in being part of the project because of my interest in magnetic resonance imaging. This is an extension of that technology.”

A surgeon holds the probe, which incorporates two sets of coils connected to a sensor. One set of coils magnetizes the magnetic particles and the second detects the magnetic response from those particles. The sensor, known as an HTS SQUID (or high-temperature superconducting quantum interference device) is located in a cryogenic vessel on a cart and is submerged in liquid nitrogen that cools the sensor to 77 K, equivalent to -320.5°F. The system uses custom-built electronics and software on a laptop computer to give the surgeon visual and audio feedback while tracking the magnetic nanoparticles in the body.

“When breast cancer is diagnosed, and a tumor has been located, a critically important issue is whether the cancer has spread to other parts of the body – a process that occurs via the transport of metastatic cancer cells through the lymphatic system,” said Brazdeikis. “The surgeon looks for lymph nodes close to the cancer. They are not easy to find. The probe is a tool for the surgeon to use during the surgery to locate the sentinel lymph node.”
Existing practice calls for a breast cancer patient to receive two preoperative injections – a radioactive isotope and a blue dye, eight to 12 hours before surgery, frequently requiring hospitalization the night before the operation. Later, in the operating room, the surgeon uses a handheld gamma probe, aided by the visual observation of the dye, to locate the lymph node with the highest radioactivity.

“Surgeons have a very small window of opportunity to locate the lymphatic nodes that the cancer drains into,” Brazdeikis said. “Our technology offers unprecedented quality and value of care benefits to patients, doctors and hospital administrators over existing procedures.”

The UH-UCL technology allows a surgeon to administer one injection, the magnetic dye that takes only 10 to 15 minutes to work and eliminates the need for a nuclear medicine practitioner to inject the radioactive material. A patient thus may not have to be hospitalized while waiting, and the technology eliminates unnecessary patient and surgeon exposure to radioactivity.

“We introduce a paradigm-shifting new technology for the staging and treatment of breast and other forms of cancer,” Brazdeikis said. “It will be very appealing for surgeons to take this technology into their practice.”

Vacuumschmelze Magnet Systems are Components of Solar Wind Measurement Mission in Space

Hanau-based Vacuumschmelze GmbH has supplied magnet systems for integration into the sensor in the SEPT Solar Electron and Proton Telescope, which measures solar activity in space and records solar wind and emission of electrically charged particles in solar eruptions. As part of the STEREO mission (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory), two SEPTs on board two identical space probes were launched from Cape Canaveral. For SEPT, five to 10 magnet systems with a high magnetic field, occupying a maximum space of 2 by 4.1 cm³ and weighing a maximum of 125 grams were required. The magnet system designed by Vacuumschmelze for integration into the SEPT sensor used two VACOFLUX 50 yokes and four VACODYM 745 HR magnets measuring 16 by 16 by 8 mm.

The mission carries a total of 16 different instruments including a magnetometer for recording the earth’s magnetic field to an accuracy of 0.1 nT. To achieve this high standard of precision, the stray fields of all other instruments had to be reduced. The maximum permissible value targeted in the first phase was 0.5 nT at a distance of 3 m. The highly complex calculation of the magnetic field, taking production tolerances into consideration, were rapidly completed using Vacuumschmelze’s own analytical field calculation program. Based on these calculations, high-precision measurement of magnetic momentum and angular deviation was performed on magnetic blocks and the most suitable combination of four magnets for each system was selected, marked and assembled.

Subsequent measurement of the maximum permissible value delivered an excellent 1.8 nT, which received full NASA approval.