The Swiss will hold a reception at NSTI Nanotech 2008 to celebrate the landing of the first AFM in space. The NASA's Phoenix probe on Mars is outfitted with an Atomic Force Microscope which is expected to study the history of water and the habitability of the Martian ice-rich soil.

Nanosurf AG, manufacturer of the AFM and a leading nanotech company from Switzerland, is sponsoring this networking reception and its Chairman will be on hand to give a presentation about the project.

This is a great opportunity to find out about the Swiss competence in the field of Nanotechnology. Companies and institutes present their most recent achievements in Lithography, Scanning Probes, Structuring of Dielectrics, Mixing and Dispersion, Plastics Injection molding and the latest technology for our famous institutes.

The reception will be held at the NSTI Nanotech 2008 Conference, Swissnanotech Pavilion on Monday, June 2nd, 5:00-6:30pm (Booth No 911), Hynes Convention Center, Boston, MA, USA. For any questions, please contact Swissnanotech pavilion organizer David Ziltener (Tel +41 78 886 81 69 or david.ziltener@swissnanotech.net) or stop by the Booth.

For more information on the Mars mission: http://www.mars-afm.ch/
For more information on Nanosurf: http://www.nanosurf.com
For more information of the Swissnanotech exhibitors:
http://www.swissnanotech.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=30&Itemid=103

UGL Unicco provides specialized cleaning services for Class 1 to Class 10,000 biological and semiconductor cleanrooms. Bob Kennedy, Operations Manager, discusses some of the challenges.

How do the cleaning efforts differ between electronics and bio cleanrooms?

For electronics it’s all about particulates where pharma is more concerned with mold and mildew. This requires different methodologies; in pharma surface cleaning is built on chemical dwell time and you have to rotate chemicals to avoid bacteria resistance. The equipment used also varies from electronics to bio.

Cleaning is just one function. How do you work with other key functions such as production and maintenance?

Since many cleanrooms operate 24/7, all major cleaning efforts, such as weekly or monthly cleaning, must be scheduled around down times. It’s important that we coordinate our cleaning schedules with maintenance activities to minimize off-schedule cleaning and to reduce labor costs.

What training do your workers receive?

All of our staff receive UGL Unicco cleanroom training and follow that with specialized training in our clients’ protocols. In addition, we constantly retrain our employees on Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) revisions. Based on our capabilities, we’ve also taken on the responsibility to train our customers’ employees at some accounts.

What does UGL Unicco bring to the table?

UGL Unicco brings an expertise developed over many years at several accounts and a focus on a single objective – to meet and exceed cleanliness standards. We take a broad view of that mandate as demonstrated by our training services. We also manage cleanroom inventories of gowns and other consumables to help our clients maintain efficient operations. We keep up with industry trends from new cleaning chemicals and equipment to tacky mat management and alternatives. We are completely focused on supporting production operations.