News Release Communique
UST Inc. and Saskatoon Firm Sign Synchrotron Technology Agreement
Scientists at the Canadian Light Source synchrotron on the University of Saskatchewan campus have come up with a new motor control device that will help run synchrotron beamline equipment and could be sold to synchrotron facilities around the world.
The device was developed by former CLS engineer Eric Norum and engineering technologist Don Cruickshank. The right to manufacture and sell it has recently been licensed to Saskatoon firm Scientific Instrumentation Ltd. (SIL) under an agreement signed between SIL and the U of S's technology transfer arm UST Inc.
"This partnership marks the first time that a Canadian company has become involved in the manufacture of parts for synchrotrons," said UST president Branko Peterman. "This is an excellent example of how UST is helping to move technology from the lab bench to the marketplace."
SIL, an advanced technology company specializing in instrumentation, now has an $80,000 contract with the CLS to produce 100 of the new "stepper motor controllers." Further orders are anticipated.
Under the agreement with UST, SIL will pay UST a royalty based on any units sold to synchrotrons other than CLS.
SIL president Larry Cooper said he thinks there's a significant market for the device internationally. "This stepper motor controller has superior technical capability to the ones that are out there now," he said. "It should be a good little bread-and-butter product for us."
Each device can drive eight motors, providing low-cost and dependable control of small motors used to steer and precisely focus X-ray beams for scientific experiments. For instance, they can control devices called monochromators that select particular wavelengths of light for experiments. Existing motor drivers made by commercial suppliers had reliability problems and were too costly.
Prior to the licensing agreement, CLS produced and sold several of these motor drivers at cost to a beamline group at the Chicago synchrotron facility, the Advanced Photon Source at the Argonne National Laboratories.
Cooper, current president and a founding member of the Saskatchewan Advanced Technology Association, is optimistic about the opportunities for Western Canadian companies to become suppliers of synchrotron technology.
"I think there are great prospects there. The real trick is for Saskatchewan industry to identify those opportunities and form the right strategic alliances with local or international groups to access this work," he said.
Construction of the $173.5-million national synchrotron facility is on time and on budget. The building that will house the synchrotron is nearly completed. The facility will begin operations in January of 2004.
A synchrotron is a huge, high-tech machine that accelerates a stream of electrons and manipulates them to create a beam of light billions of times brighter than the sun. The light can then be used by industrial and university researchers as a revolutionary new tool to observe structures and chemical reactions at a molecular level.
The CLS is owned and controlled by the U of S. CLS construction is mainly funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Canadian government, the Saskatchewan government, the Ontario government, the University of Saskatchewan, the City of Saskatoon and SaskPower.
For more information, contact:
Eric Norum
Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering
(306) 966-5394 Phone
eric.norum@usask.ca
Kathryn Warden
Research Communications Officer
Office of the Vice President Research
(306) 966-2506 Phone
(306) 966-2411 Fax
kathryn.warden@usask.ca
Office of the Vice-President (Research)
Last modified: 2012-01-19 17:01:45