Nanoink

LPN 2000 Nanolithography System

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Nanoink Inc. makes proprietary research tools for the emerging Nano Technology industry. The NLP 2000 is a nanolithography platform that enables the nanofabrication of patterns of Nano to micron-sized features to be created with a wide variety of materials.

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Simple Desktop Nanofabrication

Nanoik approached us with the configuration of a nanolithography platform for simple desktop nanofabrication. Our challenge was to develop an enclosure design that would transform a complex assemblage of components into a simple, easy to use system that almost anyone could operate. 

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Finding A Solution

Our design team worked closely with Nanoink marketing and engineering teams to develop a cutting edge design that met all the requirements for rock solid image stability and accurate thermal control of the environmental chamber. The three main enclosure assemblies needed to visually work together but remain functionally seperate so the industrial design team visually connected the environmental chamber at the front with the temperature module at the back with a contoured air plenum. A custom designed rubber gasket inside each plenum allows the chamber to have 4 axis adjustment. The microscope and camera assembly is contained in the center column above with cable management below on each side.

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Design to Manufacture

In order to manage the multitude of parts and assemblies, we created a solids model of a master assembly that was shared between our group and the engineering team at Nanoink. We designed and engineered 23 enclosure and internal component parts for the microscope and power supply unit. Once the fit and finish was refined with prototype parts Morrow Design provided cast urethane enclosure parts for 100 production units.

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Inspired Payoff

In the first two years of production, the NLP 2000 system produced a revenue stream of 18 million dollars for Nanoink.