Meaglow Ltd Investigates the Re-Sterilization of N95 Masks during Covid-19
THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO – (02 April, 2020) – Meaglow Ltd has been investigating the repurposing of its gas plasma sources for the re-sterilization of N95 masks.
Meaglow has been selling its gas plasma sources to the semiconductor industry, replacing legacy sources that were less than optimum for current applications. The company has a unique set of designs that have greatly reduced oxygen contamination problems and provide a higher flux of active plasma species. Sales have been made to such high-level customers as the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratories, U.S. Naval Research, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, among many others. Meaglow designed, locally built, plasma sources have now been distributed to ten different countries.
Our success is strongly related to the company’s location in Thunder Bay, Ontario, an industrial city with excess machine shop capability. The company is able to rapidly prototype and produce new plasma source designs in under a month in many cases. For the current emergency we have a plasma system that is already on hand and ready to use for related sterilization tests.
Initial results can be viewed on the company website at Plasma Sterilization link. Says the Chief Scientist, Dr. Butcher “We have a rapid manufacturing capability; the ability to scale that manufacturing; a distribution channel, and some positive initial testing, what we need now is support for bacteria and virus testing. We have a local company who can help with some of those tests, but we need to move quickly to help.”
With government channels clogged with offers and enquiries, Meaglow is reaching out through the media to help progress the possibility of this re-sterilization option.
About Meaglow Ltd.
Meaglow Ltd. Is a privately owned corporation in the industrial city of Thunder Bay, Canada. Its range of next generation hollow cathode plasma sources is transforming the way gas plasma is used. www.meaglow.com
Contact: K. Scott Butcher, phone +1 807 252 4391, info@meaglow.com
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50th Hollow Cathode Gas Plasma Source Ordered from Meaglow Ltd
THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO – (11 February, 2020) – In the semiconductor industry, hollow cathodes are best known for their application as sputter sources, however an increasingly successful range of gas plasma sources have been built by Meaglow Ltd for application in plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PE-ALD) and plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PE-CVD). In the past, thin non-oxide films grown by PE-ALD had suffered from severe oxygen contamination problems, a problem that is largely solved with Meaglow’s hollow cathodes, which have the other advantages of high radical flux, low ion damage, and scalability. Meaglow has made several large area sources, in fact, the new order that pushes past the 50th plasma source is for three 4” diameter sources and an 8” diameter source for the OEM Okyay Tech (www.okyaytechald.com/ ) who will use the sources in some of their upcoming ALD equipment builds. Meaglow has also built 12” diameter sources for other customers.
“We believe Meaglow’s designs represent the first successful, wide spread, application of hollow cathode gas sources for thin film deposition,” says Dr. Scott Butcher, Chief Scientist of Meaglow Ltd. “Past designs struggled with uniform plasma distribution, a problem which Meaglow has overcome.” Dr Butcher’s early exposure to radiofrequency hollow cathode technology, back in the 1990s, was a good fit for solving some of the problems faced by our PE-ALD customers. Now our technology can be found in ten countries, and our customers have published over forty related journal papers, most of which are listed on our website.
About Meaglow Ltd.
Meaglow Ltd. Is a privately owned corporation in the industrial city of Thunder Bay, Canada. It’s range of next generation hollow cathode plasma sources is transforming the way plasma deposition is done. www.meaglow.com
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ALD Nanosolutions/Meaglow Development Partnership
“When I think of hi-tech materials, I think of ALD NanoSolutions, who I know to be doing some incredibly innovative things with powders. Apart from being very robust, I think the Meaglow hollow cathode plasma source will bring the advantages of less plasma damage, higher growth per cycle, and minimized oxygen contamination for nitrides. We’re incredibly pleased to see our plasma source being mated to ALD NanoSolutions’ reactor systems,” says Scott Butcher, Chief Scientist of Meaglow Ltd.
About Meaglow Ltd.
Meaglow Ltd. produces a new range of epitaxy equipment, including custom built hollow cathode plasma sources for ALD equipment and other applications. These next generation plasma sources have been shown to provide lower oxygen and higher growth rates in many situations.
About ALD NanoSolutions
At ALD NanoSolutions, we bring the future of nanotechnology to the present. From new forms of lighting to advanced lithium-ion batteries, we are working with Fortune 100 companies to vastly improve their current products in an economically and environmentally sustainable way. We currently offer a large portfolio of technical expertise including tolling runs, licensing and equipment. Our mission is to accelerate the commercial success of a wide range of industries by delivering our superior material solutions based on our proprietary nanocoating platform. Further information about ALD NanoSolutions is available at www.aldnanosolutions.com.
Meaglow Ltd Helps Make Christmas Trees Brighter
THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO.—December, 2014—Meaglow Ltd. (Privately Held) announces that its research staff, together with students of our Chief Scientist, Dr Butcher, have shed light on LED Inefficiency.
In a publication now on line at the journal of Solid State Electronics vol. 103 (2015) 44, Meaglow staff, and students of Lakehead University, have identified a significant parasitic current in one of the layers used for LEDs. This current does not contribute to light emission and therefore lowers LED efficiency. The current is due to background oxygen contamination in p-GaN layers. Three p-GaN templates bought commercially from different suppliers all had significant parasitic currents of this type.
The research shows that oxygen monitoring for MOCVD grown p-GaN, and better quality control, are easy paths toward improved LED efficiency. The research also points to an opportunity for companies who have equipment that can provide in-situ monitoring of oxygen in p-GaN.
The recent publication has already appeared in some media sources, see for instance this link, and the paper can be seen on this link.
“In the long term, even modest efficiency improvements in nitride LEDs can ultimately lead to hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in energy savings,” says Dr Butcher. Meaglow, is pleased to have done its part in making it a brighter and greener Christmas for everyone.
Meaglow Plasma Source Provides Major Breakthrough for Advanced Semiconductor Production Technique
THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO.—March, 2014—Meaglow Ltd. (Privately Held) announces a breakthrough in semiconductor production. As computer chips become smaller and smaller, advanced production techniques, such as Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) have become more important for depositing thin layers of material. Unfortunately the ALD of some materials has been prone to contamination from the plasma sources used. Meaglow Ltd has developed a hollow cathode plasma source which has reduced oxygen contamination by orders of magnitude, allowing the reproducible deposition of semiconductor materials with improved quality.
The breakthrough has been shown in a recent publication of oxygen reduction figures for the hollow cathode plasma source supplied last year to the group of Professor Necmi Biyikli, of the Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, at Bilkent University in Turkey. The plasma source was used to upgrade their existing Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) system by replacing an inductively coupled plasma source. The publication in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C (J. Mater. Chem. C 2 (2014) 2123) shows a reduction in oxygen content of orders of magnitude compared to previous results. There is also a marked improvement in material quality. These results render the older inductively coupled plasma sources obsolete for many applications.
Meaglow is seeking other customers interested in improving the material quality of their ALD and other plasma grown nitride layers. The hollow cathode plasma technology also has the advantage of scalability to large deposition areas. The Plasma source can be used to retrofit existing systems or can be integrated with equipment manufacturers. It can also be utilized in a number of different applications including MBE, and LPMOCVD among others. Interested parties should email info@meaglow.com
Meaglow Hollow Cathode Plasma Source to Upgrade Atomic Layer Deposition at Bilkent University
THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO.—July, 2013—Meaglow Ltd. (Privately Held) announces the installation of a hollow cathode plasma source for the group of Professor Necmi Biyikli, of the Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, at Bilkent University in Turkey. The plasma source is being used to upgrade their Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) system by replacing an inductively coupled plasma source. This enhancement will reduce the oxygen contamination in ALD systems and increase the quality of Nitride thin films grown.
“The Bilkent system was easy to retrofit and the Meaglow Plasma source was the perfect solution for their oxygen contamination problem.” Says Dr. Butcher, Chief Scientist of Meaglow.
Initial results show a significant reduction of oxygen content in compound Nitride films grown. Results will be presented October 27th-November 1st at the 224th ECS Fall Meeting in San Francisco, CA at an invited talk presented at the symposium on “Atomic Layer Deposition Applications”.
Meaglow is now focused on commercializing its hollow cathode plasma technology which also has the advantage of scalability to large deposition areas. Meaglow is seeking additional ALD system owners and suppliers interested in removing the oxygen contamination in their films. The Plasma source can be used to retrofit existing systems or can be integrated with equipment manufacturers. The plasma source can be utilized in a number of different applications including MBE, and LPMOCVD among others. Interested parties should email info@meaglow.com