NTU Staff Win The National Technology Award

Congratulations to Dr Shi Xu, Prof Tan Hong Siang and A/P Tay Beng Kang from the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, for being awarded the 2000 National Technology Award! They were awarded the prestigious award for the team's outstanding contribution in developing a top performing Filtered Cathodic Vacuum Arc (FCVA) Coating Technology with major breakthroughs in producing excellent quality diamond-like-carbon, metal and dielectric films.

Previous Filtered Cathodic Vacuum Arc (FCVA) systems have suffered from various disadvantages. The shortcomings of the previous FCVA systems include the difficulties in managing the hot electric arc process, presence of large quantities of arc debris and unwanted particles, problems in controlling the film deposition rate and film uniformity as well as poor quality of the films deposited, in terms of hardness, smoothness, pin-hole density, uniformity and so on.

Dr Shi Xu, Prof Tan Hong Siang and A/Prof Tay Beng Kang had successfully completed the studies on FCVA technology to elucidate the problems associated with the previous systems. Using the new technology developed by the team, high quality films, which surpasses those produced by other techniques, are being produced.

The new FCVA technology developed by the team results in new industrial process and products that have been successfully commercialised. The research led to the design and manufacture of a versatile multi-purpose industrial-grade fully automated FCVA deposition system for thin films, metallic films, dielectric films and composite films. The film qualities from this cutting-edge technology can be controlled and tailored for specific applications. The films, which are of vastly improved quality, are being used in tribological, optical, protective, hydrophobic and electronic applications.

To date, a total of 10 patents have been filed and the new FCVA technology has been commercialised by the establishment of a spin-off company - Nanofilm Technologies International Pte Ltd (NTI), established in May 1999. The company has signed a multi-million dollar agreement with a Japanese MNC company. The research team is recognised and regarded as leaders in the field of FCVA technology.

For their outstanding contribution in developing a top performance FCVA technology, Dr Shi Xu, Prof Tan Hong Siang and A/Prof Tay Beng Kang are presented the 2000 National Technology Award