IIT Bombay teams up with US nanotechnology firm

A state of the art nano-manufacturing lab costing over USD 7.5 million donated by a global nanotechnology major was inaugurated at IIT Bombay on Thursday.

A state of the art nano-manufacturing lab costing over USD 7.5 million donated by a global nanotechnology major was inaugurated at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai on Thursday.

The prestigious institute located in north east Mumbai also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Applied Materials (AMAT) Inc, which donated three advanced tools to IIT, for collaboration in R&D projects.

The tools donated by AMAT will be used by students and professors in IIT for research in developing newer flash memory devices and improving present day applications in solar energy, Deputy Director of IIT-BJ Vasi said.

'We first came into contact with IIT two years ago while recruiting people for our new facility in Bangalore. Things moved well and we decided to collaborate with the institute and set up the tools here. Today's inaugration makes IIT the first institute globally to handle an eight inch silicon wafer used in making chips,' CEO of AMAT Mike Splinter said.

AMAT has tie-ups with other institutes like Indian Institute of Science, Stanford University and Massachusets Institute of Technology among others, he said.