THE Government's chief scientist travelled to the region yesterday to open a new electronics laboratory at Durham University.
The ultra-clean £500,000 facility will enable scientists in two cutting-edge branches of nanoscale technology to work together.
The lab is in the university's school of engineering, molecular electronics and microsystems clean room, which was officially opened by Sir David King, the Government's chief scientific advisor.
The facility is equipped with powerful equipment to work with materials on an extremely small scale and with a specially-controlled clean atmosphere to minimise impurities.
The lab will explore the interface between the relatively new branch of organic chemistry, which is producing plastic electronics, and the long-established field of silicon-based microelectronics, represented by research leaders Professor Michael Petty and Dr David Woods.
The £500,000 clean room project has been funded jointly by the Royal Society-Wolfson initiative to support science infrastructure, One NorthEast's office of science and technology, and the university itself.
Prof Petty said: "Our new clean room uniquely brings together this mix of knowledge about materials and technologies.
"Silicon is the workhorse of microelectronics, but there are lots of new developments with plastic.''
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article