Making nano-chips: Sydney centre opens today

ICONN, Media releases

Bionic eyes, quantum computers and more efficient solar cells are among the many research projects set to benefit from a new facility due to be officially opened in Sydney on Friday.

The NSW Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) will provide state of the art nano-scale fabrication facilities to Australian researchers. The Facility links seven university-based centres that provide researchers and industry with access to state-of-the-art fabrication facilities.

“The ANFF is all about providing world class facilities for Australian research and development,” said Dr Andrew Dzurak, director of the ANFF NSW Node. “The NSW Node of ANFF is the leading laboratory in Australia for semiconductor device fabrication on the nanoscale, and one of the most advanced world-wide.”

“There’s a whole range of applications in medicine, bionics, quantum computing and other areas that will be enabled by these fabrication facilities,” Dr Dzurak said. Specific projects include new types of radiation detectors for cancer treatment and research, fabrication of new types of bionics for application in bionic eyes, and new types of solar cells.

“The applications are very diverse. The goal is to enable all these technologies to flourish.”

The NSW Node of ANFF based at UNSW was established with $3m of Federal funding, $2m NSW State funding and $1m UNSW matching funds. The centre will also receive more than $4m of funding from the Federal Education Investment Fund (EIF) through the “Super Science – Future Industries” scheme.

The UNSW facilities are currently used by 120 researchers, and the goal is to more than double that to 250 in the next 4 years.

For more information about the NSW Node of ANFF click here.

Media contact: Andrew Dzurak 0432 405 434, A.Dzurak@unsw.edu.au