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11 May 1998
Scientists at the University of Dundee have won a £1/2 million cash injection from the Scottish Higher Education Council to establish a new centre of expertise in chemical sensors incorporating specialist silicon chip technology.
Professor Jim Cairns and his team - are to create a centre at the University for the design and fabrication of microengineered chemical sensors.
Currently chemical sensors are manufactured in large numbers throughout the world for a wide variety of purposes. In their simplest form they are used in the home as domestic carbon monoxide detectors while in more complex form they can control chemical plant and processes. By miniaturising such sensors with the aid of microfabrication techniques, the University of Dundee team envisage a large increase in the industrial potential of these devices.
They aim to produce microsensors using essentially the same approach as is used for producing silicon chips and incorporating the active chemical component into the final structure.
‘The approach offers huge benefits in both scientific and commercial terms’ comments Professor Cairns. ‘Scottish industry is well placed to benefit from this work. We have a major silicon chip fabrication industry already established here and some of the large inward investors have identified sensors as an exciting commercial opportunity.
‘We are in a particularly strong position at the University of Dundee to develop this technology in that we have all the required expertise in place - chemists, specialists in electronics, microfabrication and materials scientists. The potential market for sensors is enormous and Scotland is in a very good position to take advantage of this.’
The new centre, which will be based within existing buildings on the University campus, is planned to be operational within six months./ends
Contact Professor Jim Cairns 01382 344401 Notes for editors
1 The University of Dundee team and their areas of particular expertise comprises : Professor Jim Cairns (materials research), Dr Jim Thomson (chemical synthesis), Professor Alexander Fitzgerald (electron microscopy), Dr Paul Crawford (circuit design) Dr David Goldie (sensor materials), Dr Mervyn Rose (silicon processing), Mr Brian Lawrenson and Dr Robert Keatch (microfabrication).
2 Professor Cairns and his team are already well known for their work on the catalytic converter popularly dubbed the ‘Dundee Cat’, and the so-called ‘one-step silicon chip’.
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