News & Analysis
Slideshow: Inside IBM’s superconductor lab
Rick Merritt
10/30/2012 8:00 AM EDT
SAN JOSE, Calif. – IBM cited progress in its quest for an atomic-level memory technology that could someday replace hard disk drives and said the hunt for room-temperature superconductors continues.
“There’s no barrier [to finding room-temperature superconductors], it’s just a question of finding the route,” said Stuart Parkin, an IBM Fellow and manager of its magnetoelectronics group in an interview with EE Times during a symposium on the topic at IBM Almaden Research Lab here.
Superconductors offer no electrical resistance, opening the door to advances such as high-speed trains and power transmissions, but to date they require cooling to extremely low temperatures using liquid nitrogen. With room-temperature superconductors you could more easily “build quantum computing devices, exquisitely sensitive sensors to explore phenomena such as brain waves, store and transmit energy more effectively and manipulate more objects with levitation,” said Parkin.
Iron-based materials are one relatively new field researchers are exploring. For example, at the symposium Oct. 15-18 here a researcher from Tsinghua University described work that indirectly found superconducting properties at 80 Kelvin in a form of iron selenium.
[Click on the next page to read more and to see the rest of the slideshow.]
Next: At the controls
“There’s no barrier [to finding room-temperature superconductors], it’s just a question of finding the route,” said Stuart Parkin, an IBM Fellow and manager of its magnetoelectronics group in an interview with EE Times during a symposium on the topic at IBM Almaden Research Lab here.
Superconductors offer no electrical resistance, opening the door to advances such as high-speed trains and power transmissions, but to date they require cooling to extremely low temperatures using liquid nitrogen. With room-temperature superconductors you could more easily “build quantum computing devices, exquisitely sensitive sensors to explore phenomena such as brain waves, store and transmit energy more effectively and manipulate more objects with levitation,” said Parkin.
IBM’s lab (above) is exploring new kinds of man-made materials in the quest for such superconductors. It has four vacuum chambers using three deposition techniques for layering on coatings as thin as a single atom.
Iron-based materials are one relatively new field researchers are exploring. For example, at the symposium Oct. 15-18 here a researcher from Tsinghua University described work that indirectly found superconducting properties at 80 Kelvin in a form of iron selenium.
[Click on the next page to read more and to see the rest of the slideshow.]
Next: At the controls
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mike.seiler
10/30/2012 5:09 PM EDT
That is such a messy looking lab they really need a feng shui expert to come in and tidy up. Interesting, thanks for sharing.
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Semiguru
10/31/2012 4:07 PM EDT
Such mess indicates 'disorganization' and related 'inefficiency' (drag and impeded progress) to me in most cases. Hey, where is that damn 'xxxxxxx' I need and been searching for all day and where can I find it if we even have one? I've entered some extremely messy development lab and seen it all. Personally cleaned up and organized the lab for 4 weeks and started (continued) a manufacturing process development with results and success within one year and this after 4 years of neglect, frustration and failure by the previous 'undisciplined' R&D crew.
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sprite0022
10/30/2012 8:42 PM EDT
there is a fine line between honest R&D and cheating funding.
this one, uh.. I am feeling 75% of it belong to 2nd category.
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rick.merritt
10/30/2012 10:29 PM EDT
It's not a pretty lab but its not supposed to me. They are clearly doing real work of value there. Finding the path to GMR heads for disk drives was huge for the whole industry.
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sprite0022
10/31/2012 1:03 AM EDT
he might have done some disk drive head contribution.
but getting room temp superconductors with this method just sounds cheesy.
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seaEE
10/31/2012 1:26 AM EDT
The first thing I thought of was Jim Williams lab!
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SecurityGeek
10/31/2012 11:38 AM EDT
Agree. A messy lab means real work is being done. Always question a clean engineering desk. If the research in room temperature levitation properties helps us get flying cars, then I'm all for keeping the lab as messy as possible.
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Brutus_II
10/31/2012 12:41 PM EDT
A messy lab like that means job security. Who would be able to make heads or tails out of it that is not intimately familiar with "the layout". (I am joking and agree that a messy desk or lab usually means a lot is going on).
Very interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing the views.
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trm1945
10/31/2012 2:44 PM EDT
Neat and tidy have a place. When you find it, please close the lid and turn out the lights when you leave.
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selinz
10/31/2012 2:46 PM EDT
The lab doesn't look messy to me, it simply looks jam packed. Wires, cables, etc are not bundled up, making their access and debugging easy and adding flexibility. However, I'm guessing that there is a lot of old "junk" in those cabinets in the background...
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jaybus
11/1/2012 7:54 AM EDT
My thought exactly. It looks like equipment on the bench is being used, old junk in the cabinets. It looks like the lab and single bench isn't big enough.
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the lavender fan
10/31/2012 3:16 PM EDT
The last device is really nice... I wish I had one at home. ;-)
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Semiguru
10/31/2012 7:35 PM EDT
Seemingly the most manipulated and utilized device in the lab.
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sprite0022
10/31/2012 8:28 PM EDT
some old folks of IBM lab should switch to a college or sth instead of hanging around and squeezing out nonsense.
this one i'm not 100% sure, but for the other IBM achievement --the 10k nanotube microchip, I can tell you safely it's a piece of junk, completely hoax.
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rick.merritt
10/31/2012 8:41 PM EDT
These vacuum deposition are notorious for lots of pipes and cables.
At one point, IBM actually had to excavate out a space below the floor of one of the systems to maintain it and add some capabilities to the chamber.
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Mineyes
11/1/2012 12:17 PM EDT
Opto-22 interesting. IBM has made a few attempts at industrial control, ("Gearbox" mid 1980s). IBM purchases industrial control hardware & software in my (limited) experience.
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sprite0022
11/1/2012 8:31 PM EDT
rick, next time u report a lab, spend sometime to check their publication records. some picture like these won't tell anything.
this type of report just exposing your ignorance and naive.
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resistion
11/3/2012 9:32 PM EDT
For a while, it looked like a warehouse of previously useful equipment.
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sprite0022
11/4/2012 7:19 PM EST
this is a warehourse indeed.
these equipments are not dependent /connected, ie. they don't have to be packed so close.
Is IBM lab so short of space? maybe, or maybe they just want to wow those outsiders.
If you take any fab tool's cover off it will look same or more complex.
this just shows how inexperienced Rick is.
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