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Interactions
NIST Co-Hosts Indo/US Sustainable Manufacturing Workshop
MEL’s researcher Sudarsan Rachuri, along with Associate Professor Amaresh Chakrabarti from the Indian Institute of Science, organized and hosted an Indo-US Workshop entitled, “Designing Sustainable Products, Services, and Manufacturing Systems” at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India from August 18-20, 2009. The Workshop was sponsored by the Indo-US Science & Technology Forum. The primary objective of this workshop was to bring together domain experts from India and the US to discuss the social, economic, environmental, and technological aspects of designing sustainable systems, especially manufacturing systems. The workshop consisted of technical sessions, breakout discussions, and industrial showcases that addressed important issues necessary for the production of sustainable systems. The workshop was well attended and the overall objectives were met successfully. MEL and IIS staff also explored possible support from the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum for a researcher exchange program. Several of the NIST staff presented on the following topics:
- On Practicing And Enabling Sustainability In Product Lifecycle Management: An Interplay Between Engineering And Business Issues
- Understanding Sustainability Of Products
- Generic Reference Architecture For Digital, Virtual And Real Representations Of Manufacturing Systems
- Sustainable and Lifecycle Information-based Manufacturing (SLIM)
Please visit http://www.mel.nist.gov/msid/conferences/indo_us/index.html for additional details.
Contact: Sudarsan Rachuri, 301 975 4264
NIST Participation in SPIE Conference on Nanomanufacturing High
“Instrumentation, Metrology and Standards for Nanomanufacturing III”, a SPIE Conference, was held in San Diego, as part of the SPIE Optics and Photonics 2009 meeting. NIST staff were involved in both organizing the conference and in making presentations. It should be noted that even with the down economy, conference contributions for 2009 were double that of the previous year. “Instrumentation, Metrology and Standards for Nanomanufacturing III” event had six sessions over three days. Presentation topics included instrumentation, metrology and standards, interoperability, instrument integration, and information management needs for nanomanufacturing. MEL researcher Kevin Lyons opened the conference with the presentation titled “A Decade of Commitment from the NIST Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory to Nanomanufacturing and Nanometrology” (co-authored by MEL’s Michael Postek). MEL’s Michael Postek was the Chair of the conference and John Allgair of SEMATECH the co-chair. The Program Committee was composed of Kevin Lyons (MEL), Richard Silver (MEL) George Orji (MEL), John Small (CSTL) and representatives from SEMATECH, National Science Foundation, NIOSH, Semiconductor Research Corporation, University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This conference will be continued at the SPIE Optics and Photonics meeting in August 2010. Anyone interested in participating is welcome to contact the Conference Chair or Program Committee.
Contact: Michael T. Postek, 301 975 2299
NIST Optical Researchers Publish Paper for the SPIE Newsroom Site
Organizers of the SPIE (an international society for optics and photonics) Newsroom site requested a NIST paper on Optical Metrology. The paper, titled “Angle-resolved Optical Metrology using Multi-Technique Nested Uncertainties,” focused on the new quantitative scatterfield measurements and new technique using multi-technique nested measurements and uncertainties. MEL (R. M. Silver & B.M. Barnes) and ITL (N.F. Zhang & H. Zhou) collaborated on this paper. To reduce parametric correlation and improve measurement performance and uncertainties, NIST developed a Bayesian statistical approach that integrates a priori information gleaned from other measurements. The statistical approach allowed the researchers to embed information obtained from reference metrology, complimentary ellipsometry measurements of the optical constants, or to constrain the floating parametric range based on physical limits or known manufacturing variability. They implemented this approach using the scatterfield microscopy technique. The statistical technique is equally applicable to scatterometry or methods such as scanning electron microscopy. The statistical approach described allows one to bring together different measurement techniques that may each have their own best attributes, such as excellent bottom width response versus sensitivity to sidewall changes or high throughput versus accuracy. This approach allows researchers to combine the uncertainties of two or more individual measurements and arrive at a combined measurement uncertainty that is an improvement over the individual tools. Reference metrology can also be improved by combining results from multiple reference metrology tools
Contact: Rick Silver 301 975 5609
NIST Supports the Army Collaborative Technology Alliance Goals
During the period of August 3rd – 7th, NIST applied its ground truth data collection, analysis and evaluation expertise to an exercise designed to evaluate technical progress of the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance (CTA) in the area of pedestrian detection. Drawing on MEL’s expertise in measuring performance of intelligent systems, NIST, working with General Dynamics Robotic Systems (GDRS), and ARL personnel, collected essential ground truth data in an evaluation of pedestrian detection algorithms and sensors. The ground truth data, perception algorithm results, and the simultaneously-collected sensor data from multiple sensors (e.g., color cameras, ladars, and infrared cameras) were used to evaluate performance and to improve perception algorithms for human detection, enhancing safe operations for autonomous vehicles around people. This particular exercise was a follow-on to a January 2009 event with similar goals, but in a different physical environmen. The August event offered more complex scenarios, a more challenging environment, and also served as preparation for the CTA Program’s October 2009 Capstone Event, a major part of which will also be conducted at the NIST NIKE test area.
Preliminary testing at the NIKE site was undertaken in June 2008, when it was instrumented with an ultrawideband (UWB) position measurement system to track moving and fixed objects in the test area of roughly 300 m by 150 m in support of an earlier CTA data collection event. Several significant developments and improvements were incorporated for the August 2009 exercise. Among the improvements is enhanced ground truth coverage through the addition of more ultrawideband receivers, in particular, incorporation of omni-directional receivers. The result is the ability to track pedestrians, vehicles and other objects over the upper (blacktop) and lower (bungalow) areas of the site, and to track objects near and between structures. This capability did not exist previously and enables evaluation of the much more realistic scenarios required by the Army. Also, NIST improvements in data analysis and visualization tools allowed quick reviews of systems performance during the exercise. These tools enabled the early detection of a navigation system problem with the GDRS vehicle. Had this gone undetected, the collected data for the rest of the event would have been of little use. The value of these new capabilities was immediately recognized by ARL and GDRS. NIST also configured and operated the vehicle initial heading and position determination system for this exercise and collected extensive video from the test vehicle and from various positions on the course. NIST worked with GDRS to ensure that sufficient backups of collected data and results were produced independently during the exercise. In support of the CTA evaluation events, NIST, over the last several years, has developed an unparalleled capability to perform quantitative testing of robot vehicle and subsystem capabilities.
Contact: Harry Scott, 301 975 3437
MEL Hosts DoD Engineering Drawing and Modeling Working Group (DEDMWG)
MEL hosted a meeting of the Department of Defense (DOD) Engineering Drawing and Modeling Working Group (DEDMWG) August 11-12, 2009. Sponsored by the DOD Manufacturing Technology Program, the working group focuses on technical data requirements for defense systems. Until recently, engineering data was specified in most defense systems contracts to be delivered as electronic drawings. The advent of modern 3D engineering design tools has completely overtaken standards and specifications for delivery of defense system data. The working group has started the process of upgrading existing standards and identifying gaps in the current standards portfolio. The meeting included presentation of defense systems data rights, implementation of PLCS DEXs (product lifecycle support data exchange specifications) and impact on the technical data package process; status of MIL-STD-31000 (Defense Standard, “Technical Data Packages”) and ballot comments review; using 3D model data for technical publications (Adobe Systems presentation); a DEDMWG website demonstration; and DOD acquisition framework and standards gap analysis by IMTI, Inc.
Contact: Simon Frechette, 301 975 3335
Recognition
MEL Represented in SME's 2009 Class of Fellows
This fall, nine manufacturing leaders will be elected to the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) College of Fellows. It was announced that MEL’s own Albert J. Wavering III (Acting Deputy Director) has been included in this group. An SME Fellow is a member recognized by the manufacturing community as a contributor to the social, technological, and educational aspects of the profession. This prestigious honor can only be earned through at least 20 years of dedication and service to manufacturing engineering by SME members in good standing. Over the course of his 24-year career at NIST, Al Wavering made significant technical and leadership contributions to performance metrics, test methods, and standards for advanced manufacturing. His accomplishments over the years helped advance such technologies as state-of-the-art sensor-based robot control and manufacturing-equipment interoperability. He joined SME in 1984, is currently a member of the SME Education Foundation's Board of Directors. In 1996, he was awarded SME's Philip R. Marsilius Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award.
Contact: Albert Wavering, 301 975 3400
MEL Researcher Delivered Keynote at the SPIE 2009 Metrology Inspection and Process Control Conference
MEL researcher Richard Silver delivered the keynote presentation at this year’s SPIE 2009 Metrology Inspection and Process Control Conference. The opening keynote presentation drew an audience of several hundred conference attendees largely in the semiconductor manufacturing and metrology community. The paper titled “Improving Optical Measurement Accuracy using Multi-technique Nested Uncertainty” was presented at the opening session and received significant interest including coverage by the news media due to the importance of the new techniques described. The paper described an in depth study carried out by jointly MEL optics researchers, Nien Fan Zhang of ITL, and the Physics Lab, largely as a result of the multi laboratory funded competence in scatterfield microscopy. The paper compared and contrasted different combinations of scatterfield and scatterometry optical configurations and introduced a new approach to embedding atomic force microscopy (AFM) or other reference metrology results directly in the uncertainty analysis and library-fitting process to reduce parametric uncertainties.
The presentation showed both simulation results and experimental data demonstrating this new method, which is based on the application of a Bayesian analysis to library-based regression fitting of optical critical dimension (OCD) data. The presentation detailed the statistical methods that were developed to implement this approach of nested uncertainty analysis and gave several examples, demonstrating reduced uncertainties in the final combined measurements. The approach also demonstrated a combined reference metrology application using several independent measurement methods. The new material and technical description for combined measurement uncertainties was very well received. Subsequently, Rick received solicitations for a number of invited papers and presentations on the new technique.
Contact: Rick Silver, 301 975 5609
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