32 Out of 100 Isn't Bad

December 2004 / January 2005 Volume 2 Number 6

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Each year, Chicago-based R&D Magazine presents awards to the top 100 industrial innovations worldwide. Often called the "Oscars of invention," awards were presented in October. This year DOE labs have won a total of 32 R&D 100 awards. Here are a few highlights:

Sandia National Laboratories

Cantilever Epitaxy
What It Is: A process for growing LEDs.
What It Does: Reduces the number of dislocations, giving the potential for longer-lived and better performing LEDs.
Potential Applications: The cantilever epitaxy process shows promise for making a superior substrate for light-emitting devices and has potential for applications to a wide variety of electronic devices and GaN integrated circuit technology.
Who Did It: Carol Ashby, David Follstaedt.

Trilinos
What It Is: Trilinos is part of a broad effort by national laboratories, industry and academia to establish high-fidelity computational modeling and simulation as an approach to engineering and scientific understanding so that it becomes an equal partner with the most basic approaches of theory and experiment.
What It Does: Offers what is probably the largest and most complete scalable solver capability in the world and is freely available to the public.
Potential Applications: Trilinos, meaning "string of pearls" in Greek, has become tremendously successful at addressing this "solver problem" and has become a critical enabler for the diverse simulation codes that support almost every major engineering discipline within DOE's Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program
Who Did It: Led by Mike Heroux, with 24 other researchers, at both Sandia/New Mexico and Sandia/California.

Los Alamos National Laboratory

10-Gigabit Ethernet
What It Is: A network card.
What It Does: Delivers information electronically at speeds 148,000 times faster than a modem connection and more than 23,000 times faster than a DSL connection.
Potential Applications: This innovation has the potential to vastly increase the speed of electronic transmissions and data transactions, such as those in commerce, banking, medicine, scientific modeling and simulation and even the internet.
Who Did It: Wu-Chun Feng, Justin Hurwitz and Matthew Baker (Intel).

Confocal X-Ray Fluorescence Microscope
What It Is: An analysis instrument capable of doing elemental depth profiles and three-dimensional elemental images of material composition.
What It Does: Uses X-ray fluorescence to nondestructively measure concentrations of elements within a small area.
Potential Applications: Could be used for crime scene evidence analysis, and the in situ analysis of fine-art paintings.
Who Did It: George Havrilla, Ning Gao (X-ray Optical Systems Inc.)

Clustermatic
What It Is: A revolutionary software suite for managing, monitoring, administering and operating clusters on network-connected computers running as a high-performance system.
What It Does: Increases reliability and efficiency, decreases node autonomy, simplifies computer programming, reduces administration costs, and minimizes a user's reliance on unpredictable software.
Potential Applications: Enables commodity-based cluster networks to compete with the higher-cost supercomputers.
Who Dd It: Ron Minnich, Erik Hendriks, Sung-Eun Choi, Greg Watson, Matt Scottile, Li-Ta Lo and Adam Sulmicki.

mpiBlast
What It Is: An enhancement for BLAST, an open-source software package distributed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information that has become the ubiquitous genomic-sequencing tool in molecular biology.
What It Does: Reduces the search time of a genomic sequence from nearly 1,346 minutes (22.4 hours) to less than seven minutes.
Potential Applications: Such substantial time reductions could decrease costs in the field of genomic sequencing.
Who Did It: Wu-chun Feng and Aaron Darling.

Plasma-Torch Production of Spherical Boron Nitride Particles
What It Is: An innovative method for producing particles that can be used as filler in integrated circuit packages.
What It Does: Enables electronic devices to run cooler and faster.
Potential Applications: Producing a variety of materials including carbon nanotube threads with high strength-to-weight ratio for ropes, metallic and carbon-coated nanoparticles for fast burning fuel components and oxide nanoparticles that might be used for a next-generation class of armor.
Who Did It: Jonathan Phillips, Seth Gleiman and Chun-Ku Chen (former LLNL)

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Autonomous Pathogen Detection System (APDS)
What It Is: An automated, podium-sized instrument that can monitor the air for all three types of biological agents (bacteria, viruses and toxins.)
What It Does: APDS can be deployed for a week without human intervention and can report any pathogen releases in its vicinity to operators at a central location.
Potential Applications: The primary APDS screening mechanism is for pathogen proteins to be detected with antibodies using advanced immunoassays.
Who Did It: Steve Brown, Keith Burris (retired), Bill Colston Jr., John Dzenitis, Anne Erler, Dora Gutierrez, Bruce Henderer, Benjamin Hindson, Robert K. Johnson, Leslie Jones, Richard Langlois, Ramakrishna Madabhushi, Anthony Makarewicz, Ray Mariella Jr., Don Masquelier, Mary McBride, Tom Metz, Fred Milanovich, Shanavaz Nasarabadi, Ujwal Sathyam, Sally Smith, and Kodumudi Venkateswaran.

Solid-State Heat Capacity Laser
What It Is: A diode-pumped pulsed laser. With an output of more than 10,000 watts, making it the most powerful diode-pumped solid-state laser in the world, the laser is fired in a pulsed mode, producing a peak power of up to half a million watts.
What It Does: When aimed at a buried mine, this high peak power rapidly heats the ground, causing it to burst aside and expose the mine.
Potential Applications: Uncovers and safely neutralizes buried land mines. Once exposed, the mine is benignly burned out rather than dangerously exploded. The laser also significantly reduces the problem of false positives.
Who Did It: Mark Rotter, Scott Fochs, Alexander Rubenchik, Charles Boley, Roy Merrill, Bob Yamamoto, Tom McGrann, Sally Gonzales, Scott Mitchell, Bill Manning, Balbir Bhachu, Bruce Roy, Kurt Cutter, Lloyd Hackel and C. Brent Dane (who now works for Metal Improvement Co. Inc.).

Chromium
What It Is: Software architecture. (It draws its name from the phrase "Cluster Rendering," or CR for short. CR is the atomic symbol for the element Chromium.)
What It Does: Provides a way for interactive two and three dimensional graphics applications to take full advantage of powerful distributed, graphics-enabled clusters of off-the-shelf or commodity personal computers.
Potential Applications: Allows most existing applications to run without modification, and enables creation of powerful new parallel graphics applications capable of fully exploiting the power of these clusters.
Who Did It: Randall Frank and Sean Ahern, in collaboration with researchers from Stanford University, the University of Virginia and Tungsten Graphics.

Inductrack
What It Is: A magnetic levitation (maglev) system.
What It Does: Uses new arrangements of permanent magnets to create its levitating fields. Offers a simple low-cost solution to the country's growing need for efficient intercity and urban transportation networks.
Potential Applications: Currently, a full-scale, 400-foot-long test track is nearing completion at General Atomics in San Diego, with a full-sized vehicle chassis and all associated power and control systems.
Who Did It: Dick Post, Dmitri Ryutov, J. Ray Smith, Louann Tung, Edward Cook, Joel Martiez-Frias, William Kent and Don Podesta (retired).  The team also has 14 members from the General Atomics urban maglev team.

SiHybrids
What It Is: A tool for RNA interference, the gene silencing technique.
What It Does: Has a unique ability to be delivered into cells without the aid of a cytotoxic lipid vehicle, which demonstrates the technology's promise for use in therapeutic agents.
Potential Applications: A number of the applications are envisioned for both basic research and in improving cancer therapies.
Who Did It: Allen Christian, Larry Dugan, Alice Chen, Eric Hofmann, Janelle Lamberton and Rose Latham.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

BSP3 Polymer
What It Is: A carbosiloxane polymer.
What It Does: Detects airborne chemical agents such as nerve agents that might be used in a terrorist attack.
Potential Applications: The patented polymer (BSP3) has been licensed to BAE Systems, which is developing ChemSentryTM 150C chemical vapor detector system. The polymer coats the surface of a sensor chip in the chemical detector and absorbs vapor molecules from the air so the sensor can detect them.
Who Did It: Jay W. Grate, Steven N. Kaganove (Michigan Molecular Institute), David A. Nelson.

D3: Degradable by Design Deicer—„
What It Is: De-icer
What It Does: Made from biobased materials and having less environmental impact on receiving waters, it is much less corrosive and is less toxic than existing fluid deicers.
Potential Applications: Composed of a family of non-toxic, biodegradable fluids, it is used to remove and prevent the formation of ice on military and commercial aircraft, military and commercial runways, and roadways or pavement.
Who Did It: (Joint entry with Battelle Memorial Institute)—€”Satya Chauhan (Battelle), H. Nick Conkle (Battelle Memorial Institute), William Samuels, Sara Fauss Kuczek (Battelle), Marisol Avila, John Frye, Kevin Simmons.

Intellifit System
What It Is: Cylindrical holographic imaging technology.
What It Does: Performs a 360-degree whole body scan in less than 10 seconds, resulting in precise body measurements forming a high-resolution 3D image of the body.
Potential Applications: Patterns help manufacturers, anywhere in the world, create garments that fit real people in their targeted demographic.
Who Did It: Douglas L. McMakin, Dale Collins, James M. Prince, Thomas E. Hall, David M. Sheen, Wayne M. Lechelt, Paul E. Keller, Ronald H. Severtsen.

Single-Chain Antibody Library
What It Is: An easy-to-grow library of more than one billion artificial antibodies.
What It Does: Produced by genetically engineered brewer's yeast, offers an inexpensive method for creating and producing antibodies for research.
Potential Applications: It could replace the need to produce antibodies using animals and presents new possibilities for rapidly designing medical treatments more compatible with the human immune system.
Who Did It: Michael J. Feldhaus K. Dane Wittrup (MIT), Lee K. Opresko, Robert W. Siege, H. Steven Wiley.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

The Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Biomass Cellulose to Sugars
What It Is: Technology to allow a wide range of biomass resources to be used to produce energy and chemicals.
What It Does: Reduces cost of converting cellulosic biomass into usable sugars by more than 20 times per gallon of ethanol produced.
Potential Applications: An important step toward realizing the potential of biorefineries: plant and waste materials are used to produce an array of fuels and chemicals, analogous to an oil refinery today.
Who Did It: Michael Himmel, Jim McMillan, Dan Schell, Jody Farmer, Nancy Dowe, Rafael Nieves, along with Genencor International and Novozymes Biotech, Inc.

Copper Indium Gallium Diselenide (CIGS) Photovoltaic Modules
What It Is: A thin-film solar cell.
What It Does: Produces electricity directly from sunlight.
Potential Applications: Lighter and more flexible than previous devices, they are especially suited for military applications, portable power for consumer and public use, boating and other marine applications and building-related uses, such as bus shelters and PV-integrated roofing.
Who Did It: Harin Ullal, Ken Zweibel Bolko von Roedern, along with Global Solar Energy and ITN Energy Systems.

Argonne National Laboratory

Powertrain System Analysis Toolkit (PSAT)
What It Is: Accurate performance, fuel economy and emissions simulations.
What It Does: Allows vehicle designers to develop realistic powertrain control strategies and assess transient component behaviors in a system environment.
Potential Applications: With this software, powertrain configurations are automatically built, instead of being saved or manually built, allowing users to run hundreds of simulations in a row without the need to be present in front of the computer.
Who Did It: Aymeric Rousseau

Grancrete Spray-On Structural Phosphate Ceramic Cement
What It Is: A rapid construction process for low-cost housing using premixed, environmentally friendly Grancrete magnesium-phosphate cement powder.
What It Does: The material itself is fire-resistant, waterproof and extremely resilient against cracking.
Potential Applications: A structure of approximately 800 sq. ft. would cost $6,000 in labor and materials to build in about two days.
Who Did It: Arun Wagh, Jim Paul (Casa Grande Intl.)

The Hydrogen Transport Membrane (HTM)
What It Is: An enabling membrane technology for the emerging hydrogen economy.
What It Does: Facilitates the economical and environmentally friendly production of hydrogen from gasified carbon-based feedstocks. This is achieved without the membrane becoming embrittled by its interactions with hydrogen or poisoned by the presence of sulfur in the feed gases.
Potential Applications: These features will impact industries like the automotive sector by allowing the efficient generation of electricity via fuel cells and the local production of hydrogen as a transportation fuel from reformed natural gas.
Who Did It: Uthamalingam Balachandran along with NETL scientists.

The Glass Furnace Model
What It Is: A three-dimensional computer code.
What It Does: Developed for the glass industry to evaluate furnace design, performance and operation.
Potential Applications: Allows engineers to "visualize" critical heat transfer, flow and reaction patterns within the interior of a glass furnace. The simulation is used to conduct extensive experiments, inexpensively on the computer.
Who Did It: Brian Golchert, Steve Lottes, Michael Patrick, Chenn Qian Zhou and the late Shen Lin Chang.