The new improvements to the HVAC system are working great. Installation was completed in March 2000 and since then, through two sweltering Pittsburgh summers and a winter, we've enjoyed continuous 68° F ±1° F and 35% ± 3% RH lab conditions.
The dual chillers have provided the facility with non-stop 32° F glycol chilled water for dehumidification throughout the past year, an excellent record that is much appreciated in mid-August.
The new digital controls are very easy to monitor via the campus facilities network.
Outside our lab it's a steamy 98.6° - not the best day to dig a hole...
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But inside we have beautiful hole digging weather 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
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Fang Chen, front, is milling 100nm x 100nm aperatures on the surface of commercial red diode lasers. Xiaochun Wu (back) is learning the ropes from Fang so that he can begin etching 100nm x 100nm holes in silicon nitride, to be filled later with cobalt for the nanofabrication of tips for a MEMS-actuated, probe-based data storage system.
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