Shake tables provide a critical tool for simulating earthquake events and testing the response of structures to seismic forces. Simulated earthquake conditions can help civil engineers identify potential weaknesses in the design and suggest ways to improve a structure’s resilience. In a controlled laboratory setting, shake tables can also be...

Microwave-assisted synthesis is a modern method of heating substances rapidly and with high energy efficiency. Applications in solid state chemistry is a growing field of research rapidly gaining popularity with microwave heating being used to synthesize a plethora of inorganic compounds. As a result of its time- and energy-efficiency, it can also...

High throughput parallel assays are needed to effectively identify and study biomolecules and their activity. Typically it takes a large number of repeated assays to get statistically significant data for studying biomolecules. However, fewer assays would be needed to get statistically meaningful results if the data were of higher quality. Because of...

The ability to measure molecular binding and interactions is important for understanding many biological processes. Particularly important is detecting the binding of small molecule drugs with their corresponding membrane protein receptors, which currently account for more than half of all drug targets. For effective measurements, purified membrane...

Micromilling is a material-removal manufacturing process for producing parts with features measured in microns that have sub-micron manufacturing tolerances, often done via computer numerical control (CNC). A rotary tool called a micro end mill etches designs into the material with a toothed, multi-headed drill bit. A chip is cut away each time a tooth...

Anomalies on semiconductor substrates, such as process contaminants, post-polishing substrate fragments, or voids, must be accurately located and identified in order to obtain the cleanliness required by the next generation of integrated microcircuits. While technological advances have reduced the critical anomaly size to less than 80 nm, existing conventional...

Nanotechnology is the study of the control of matter at the atomic and molecular level, and is focused mainly on the creation of materials and equipment to work within that scale. One thing holding back the advancement of this technology is the lack of experimental tools capable of visualizing nanoprocesses in real time across their full range of operation....