ALBANY, N.Y., 14 July 2005. A unit of Honeywell International Inc. will spend at least $5 million over the next five years on facilities at Albany NanoTech, the company said this week.
The investment will buy lab equipment and fund research by faculty and students at Albany NanoTech, the SUNY-sponsored nanotechnology research hub on Fuller Road. SUNY is the State University of New York.
California-based Honeywell Electronic Materials, which develops materials used in the manufacture of computer chips, said it will focus its work on developing materials called metal precursors. Metal precursors are involved in a technique that deposits a layer of the precursor material on a chip that is only one atom or one molecule thick, according to a statement from the company. The technique is important to researchers because of the ongoing quest to make computer chips ever smaller.
The work Honeywell will do in Albany is related to work being done at the Honeywell Electronic Materials research and development center in Buffalo, said Michael Fancher, Albany NanoTech's director of economic outreach.
"We felt that Honeywell was a perfect fit for the programs and partners established at Albany NanoTech, and we're confident they will grow in other key areas: aerospace sensors, energy and security divisions," Fancher said.
Honeywell International said in May it would be a research partner with Albany NanoTech and participate in research and development spearheaded by IBM. Honeywell officials weren't available for comment Wednesday.
In a written statement, Honeywell Electronic Materials Chief Technology Officer Saket Chadda said the investment "will allow us to continue to develop new materials critical to continuing the relentless pace of circuit miniaturization."
Copyright, Albany Times Union
