Bill Rowe, staff research associate at the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics (SCIPP), manually forges tiny wire bonds to a silicon chip with ultrasonic waves. A grant from the National Science Foundation will allow SCIPP scientists to purchase an automated ultrasonic wire bonder, as well as an automated probe station to test the quality of silicon "strips" designed at SCIPP. The strips form critical components of particle detectors in high-energy physics experiments.

Photo: Robert Irion

Return to article

To the Currents home page