Laser, sensor, lithography technique among LLNL's winningproducts

17 Jun 2002

Six new Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory technologies won awards from the trade journal R&D Magazine for ranking among the top 100 industrial inventions or products worldwide for 1995.

Innovative products include cluded: an electronic advanced lithography for flat panel displays, a sensor for flexible manufacturing, a new surgical laser, and an optical amplifier. Together, DOE labs at Livermore, Sandia, and Oak Ridge netted 31 of this year's awards.

LLNL developed a revolutionary lithography technique that produces flat panel displays by using two ultraviolet or violet laser beams to cross each other (or interfere) and leave tiny patterns on material. The new process may permit field emission displays -- one type of flat panel display -- to compete in the same cost range with other flat panel displays for use in televisions, computer screens and electronic billboards. This award is shared by Michael Perry, Jerald Britten, Hoang Nguyen, Andres Fernandez, Robert Boyd, Andrew Hawryluk, James Spallas and Nat Ceglio.

A new non-contact optical sensor that markedly increases the capabilities and flexibility of computer-controlled machines led to an R&D 100 award for Livermore mechanical engineer Charles Vann. Vann's sensor, called the six degrees of freedom sensor, is more than 200 times faster and up to 25 times more accurate than competing sensors.