A complete list of universities who participated in the survey and additional information about their micro and nanotech resources are included in the May/June 2006 issue of Small Times magazine.

One of this years most prominent events in the field of micro- and nanosystems is the official launch of the new European Technology Platform on Smart Systems Integration, EPoSS.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., May 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Communications Industry Researchers, CIR, has released the next in a new series of articles focused on the optical components market. The article, entitled "Nanophotonics, Components and Optical Networking," is drawn from CIR's on-going research into the components world that started back in 1999.

Ovum-RHK expects global datacom optical components sales to grow at an 11% compounded annual growth rate from $728 million in 2005 to $1.34 billion in 2011. According to the firm, Ethernet transceivers will lead the market growth, with the LAN market transitioning from 1 to 10 Gbit/sec and Fiber Channel transceivers in the storage market transitioning to 4 Gbit/sec and then 8 Gbit/sec. In another announcement, market analyst Ovum-RHK also reports that sales of optical components for datacom applications will grow 11% every year through 2011, and that some III-V chip fabrication facilities may soon need expansion to handle the increasing volumes.

Scientists in the UK have been able to generate pairs of entangled photons from a nanoscale crystal of semiconductor known as a "quantum dot" far more efficiently than was possible before. The breakthrough was made by Andrew Shields at Toshiba and colleagues at the University of Cambridge, who produced entangled photons with an efficiency of 70% - compared to a previous best figure of 49%. The improved performance approaches that required for useful applications, which means that devices emitting entangled light could one day be as common as lasers and light-emitting diodes (New J. Physics 8 29).

Optical fiber has proved to be the ideal medium for transmitting signals based on light, while crystalline semiconductors are the best way to manipulate electrons. A technological challenge is exchanging information between optics and electronics rapidly and efficiently. A new technique invented by an international team of scientists from the University of Southampton (UK) and Penn State University (USA) may provide a solution. The team has made semiconductor devices (including a transistor) inside microstructured optical fibers. The key breakthrough was the ability to form crystalline semiconductors that nearly fill the entire inside diameter or pore of optical fibers. When the tube is filled with a crystalline semiconductor, such as germanium, the semiconductor forms a wire inside the optical fiber. The crystals were formed using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to deposit germanium and other semiconductors inside the pores of the hollow optical fiber

QD Laser is a new company aiming to take quantum dot lasers into the fastest moving sectors of the telecommunications market; metro / access and LANs. Partners Fujitsu and Mitsui have initially invested around $2.5 million and expect to achieve a leading commercial position with this "superior" technology by 2010

The Johns Hopkins University has established a new Institute for Nanobiotechnology to bring together expertise from the fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology, biology, medicine, and engineering to enable the creation of new knowledge and new technologies.

Glen Allen, Virginia: OLEDs and paper-like display technology are rapidly leading to new opportunities in the display industry, according to a new report from NanoMarkets LC. The report predicts that combined sales of OLED displays and paper-like displays will reach $10.2 billion by 2011 and then go on to reach $14.7 billion by 2013.

The impact of nanotech on health and the environment seems to be a potential new source for scare stories and horror fiction (e.g. Michael Crichton's "Prey"). The European Union's Nanoforum and the Institute for Environment and Sustainability (Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy) organised a workshop on "Nano and the Environment" in Brussels in March 2006, which was the forum for a wide-ranging discussion.

Accsense Inc.'s environment monitoring solution is now making critical measurements with its industry-first turnkey wireless sensor product at the University of California-Santa Barbara (UCSB) Nanofabrication Facility