Jul 20 2009
Canada's National Institute for Nanotechnology will soon be home to a new electron microscopy research and product development centre. The Hitachi Electron Microscopy Products Development Centre (HEMiC) at the National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT) in Edmonton Alberta is a $14 million project supported the Canadian and Alberta governments, the University of Alberta and Hitachi High Technologies Inc.
Through this research and development collaboration and the involvement of Hitachi High Technologies' product development and technical sales expertise, commercialization of NINT microscope innovations is expected to be accelerated. Already international project teams are working collaboratively towards new innovations in electron microscopy.
One of the centre's first projects will evaluate and test the world's sharpest electron emitter, developed by the Molecular Scale Devices group at NINT for use as an electron source in electron microscopes.
"Alberta's strength in nanotechnologies, and the province's coordinated strategy for nanotechnology made our decision to seek a partnership here easy," said John Cole President of Hitachi High-Technologies, Canada Inc.
The new Centre will house three new electron microscopes valued at $7 million, including the first-ever Hitachi environmental transmission electron microscope Model H-9500 in operation outside of Japan.