By Vincent Wright

Canada’s leading voice for nanotechnology business development is partnering with the National Research Council’s (NRC) Industrial Materials Institute (IMI) on a roadmap that could lead to the country’s first fabrication facility for commercializing potentially disruptive, nanoscale innovations. The Canadian NanoBusiness Alliance (CNBA), under an arrangement unveiled at NRC-IMI’s Boucherville PQ lab last month, will establish and operate a NanoImprint Lithography (NIL) prototype fabrication Centre adjacent to the Institute’s expanding NIL research lab.

The Centre is supported by federal contributions totaling $4.55 million from NRC and Canada Economic Development Quebec. The funding will be split between expanding and updating NRC-IMI’s research capacity and the establishment of the Centre itself. In all, NRC plans to expand its clean room facilities for NIL activities by a factor of five.

“NanoImprint Lithography (NIL) is one of the key building blocks of nanotechnology because of its ability to fabricate nanoscale patterns today at a fraction of the cost of tradi-tional lithography techniques, says CNBA president Neil Gordon. “By offering prototyping services and low volume production runs for applications that have nanoscale dimensions and make use of low cost polymer substrates instead of silicon, the Centre will act as a catalyst for the creation of a new generation of applications — from biosensors and lab-on-a-chip, to solar panels.”

While there appears to be strong private sector support for the Centre, Gordon was vague on details. “There have been industry investments in this project as well,” says Gordon. “It’s not purely governmental, but that’s about all I can say at this time.”

Gordon did confirm that much of the industry support will come from Austria’s EV Group, the world’s largest supplier of NIL systems. EV Group, together with a European specialist in UV NanoImprint applications, NRC-IMI, and Japan’s Waseda University, have formed a global network of centres of excellence known as NILCom.

As a process research hub for EV Group’s NIL system for the past four years, NRC has developed strong ties with the European vendor, according to Michel Dumoulin, director of advanced materials and processes at NRC-IMI. “Because this is new technology and there are very few suppliers around the world, we discussed the need for strong international linkages and that’s how NILCom was formed (ensuring) that Canada has access to best-in-class NIL technology.”

For its part, EV Group will deliver two systems to Canada — an advanced platform for ongoing process and applications research, and a high-throughput, hot-embossing system — for the new prototyping Centre.

Dumoulin says the need for a high-throughput system emerged about a year ago when NRC-IMI’s industry and research partners began requesting low-volume production services. Noting that NRC is neither equipped nor mandated to offer such services, he says the search began for a private sector partner to establish a prototyping facility.

Enter CNBA, a loose coalition of industrial and research interests that’s been advocating a Canadian equivalent to the US National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). Driven largely by Gordon and business partner Uri Sagman, CNBA has forged a network with nanotechnology leaders internationally, but has thus far been unsuccessful in realizing a Canadian NNI. “With our new operational mandate, CNBA is evolving into something different,” explains Gordon. “But that doesn’t mean we’ve abandoned our advocacy of a national nanotechnology initiative.”

Dumoulin cautions that it may be a tall order to expect an advocacy group like CNBA to transition into operational entity. He notes that NRC favours the branding of a new corporate identity for the Centre, distinct from the science agency and CNBA. In the short term, CNBA will outsource operations of the Centre to NRC.

While the Centre will help speed the commercialization of nanotechnology research, an equally important objective for promoters is to demonstrate the financial viability of merchant or third-party nanofabrication services to potential private sector investors. At that point, a business case could be made for Canada’s first, commercial, full-scale nanofabrication company.

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