Inside A Surface Science & Sensor Technology Laboratory

The University of Maine's Laboratory for Surface Science & Technology (LASST) carries out interdisciplinary research projects and technology transfer activities in the areas of surfaces and interfaces, sensor technology, nanotechnology, thin films, and microelectronic devices. Robert J. Lad, Director of LASST, describes how the lab is currently developing microwave acoustic wireless sensors that can be put in high-temperature, harsh environments. The LASST researchers have made a ceramic-based, nano-composite type of electrode material that has allowed them to test and operate their sensors.

Transcript

00:00:08 the laboratory for surface science and technology which we refer to as last is an interdisciplinary center here at the university of maine that was established in 1980 it brings together faculty staff and students from a variety of disciplines physics chemistry electrical and computer engineering and chemical and biological engineering

00:00:24 and over the last 32 years we've expanded from just looking at surfaces to really address a variety of problems of material sciences and nanotechnology we have a culture here of doing team oriented projects this is very effective in actually solving these problems but it also makes a very exciting and dynamic training ground for our students to learn

00:00:43 how to become next generation scientists and engineers working at last i've been offered lots of research opportunities there's lots of different departments in one building and so i've been able to explore many different fields of research what makes the facilities that last unique is the fact that even in one laboratory you can do so many different

00:01:01 types of research in the lab that i work in we can do fluorescence microscopy we can also do cell culture we can do device fabrication dna modification when i need something a lot of times we can fabricate it in-house for a lot cheaper and a lot faster i can ask one of my

00:01:18 advisors and they can teach me and show me how to make something rather than ordering it from a company and that's a really big benefit of last the students here at umaine are trained in the clean room in nano and micro fabrication technology they then apply that knowledge

00:01:36 in their research projects for making sensors or doing fundamental material science research the micro instruments and systems laboratory is an interdisciplinary group the focus of our research is in applications of nano and micro microfabrication technology to solve sensing and instrumentation problems if someone

00:02:01 wants to make a measurement whether it be in biology chemistry or material science we develop both the materials and the instrumentation to do those measurements we do projects that range from biomedical all the way to aerospace projects are being carried out in a

00:02:21 variety of technological areas ranging from very fundamental studies to some applied development for example we're working on developing these very tiny microwave acoustic wireless sensors that can be put in high temperature harsh environments we made significant success at actually making a ceramic-based nanocomposite type of electrode material

00:02:39 and this enabled us to test and operate our sensors for very very long time periods at these high elevated temperatures sensors themselves can be made in our clean room using film deposition and photolithography but then we can take them out and process them and then actually test them at very high temperature in some of our furnaces

00:02:54 we have a very specialized furnace that goes actually to very high temperature and high pressure and then we can also do materials characterization with spectroscopies and microscopies and diffraction techniques i graduated from umaine in 2010 with my phd in electrical and computer engineering and i'm currently working as a technical

00:03:12 manager at environetix technologies which is a small spin-off company from the university of maine i decided to study at the university of maine because i worked in the field of chemical sensors for a number of years before i decided to go back to graduate school and when you work in that field you realize pretty quickly that the

00:03:28 university of maine is one of the true leaders in that field my research experience at last involved developing a new sensor that could be used for chemical and biological detection the fact that i was able to get my phd in the area of acoustic wave sensors really helped me transition my knowledge to the small company and help

00:03:44 that company to grow we have an important role here at last to actually help economic development happen here in the state of maine we do a lot of collaborative projects with industries and companies both here in maine and beyond we've also been very proud of the fact that our research has spun off seven small companies here out of last and

00:04:00 these are new high-tech jobs here in maine but they also offer the opportunity to our students many who are entrepreneurial to stay here in maine and pursue careers in these high-tech industries the thermal conversion group here at the university of maine is really focused on developing higher energy processes for

00:04:15 taking woody biomass and converting it into high energy density liquid fuels we have faculty from three different departments who work together in a synergistic fashion we have students from all these different departments as well we take solid biomass and we convert that into a liquid bio

00:04:33 oil this liquid bio oil is highly oxygenated so we try to design new catalytic materials that can remove this oxygen really upping the energy content of these materials main industries in the state of maine are the pulp and paper industries and we have a lot of forest residue that

00:04:51 basically is burned it's waste and if we can develop new technologies that can take this waste biomass and convert it into usable say clean fuel we now have a method to bring high-tech jobs in the state of maine as well as really stabilizing energy costs here in maine last is committed to addressing

00:05:11 important problems that face our society and so we need to do is continue to invest in research and development and work on problems that are very relevant such as sustainable materials renewable energy and medical diagnostics but always at the core of all this will be our students because they're the ones that are doing the research it's their

00:05:27 ideas and knowledge that brings us to the new frontier and lets us solve these problems you