Near-invisible locks for nuclear weapons.

Sandia is a world leader in the technology required for development, fabrication, and production of microelectronic, photonic, micromachine and microsensor devices and products. Sandia also has the ability to integrate these devices into complete microsystems. Microsystems that sense, think, act, communicate and self-power will make our nation more secure, spawn new industries, and will make the revolution in biology a reality.

Distinguishing strengths for our program include materials growth and development, device and product design, fabrication technologies for silicon and compound semiconductor devices, advanced packaging technologies, reliability, failure analysis and product delivery for extreme environments. Sandia's two major facilities, the Microelectronics Development Lab and the Compound Semiconductor Research Lab, provide the ability to conduct research and to turn that research into real products for critical applications.

DOE and Sandia have begun a significant expansion of these capabilities with the MESA (Microsystems and Engineering Applications) program to seamlessly integrate advanced simulation with agile manufacturing to provide a faster, better, cheaper process for providing novel microsystems to support the enduring nuclear weapons stockpile and other critical needs of the nation. The MESA Institute provides an opportunity for university students to develop first-hand experience with Sandia's advanced technologies.

Sandia's microsystems pioneering work began in the 1960s with the invention of the laminar flow clean room. Virtually every microdevice fab (as well as every operating room and ultra-clean environment) in the world uses the clean room.

In the 1970s Sandia established its leadership in radiation-hardened integrated circuit electronics. The ability of the Galileo spacecraft to survive Jupiter's radiation belts was made possible by the integrated circuits supplied by Sandia. The Jovian radiation environment produced radiation exposure equivalent to that from a nuclear detonation.

In the 1980s Sandia established a capability in optoelectronics that led in the 1990s to advances in VCSELs (Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers) and other devices. VCSELs are revolutionizing the worldwide optical communications network. Also in the 1980s Sandia began pioneering work in Strained Layer Superlatices, provide the ability to optimize device properties for a particular application by tailoring materials structures.

In the 1990s Sandia began a cooperative program with US industry to improve the manufacturing equipment and processes used to make microdevices. This cooperative national effort helped ensure a US supplier base for critical microelectronics processing equipment. It also led to establishment of a virtual national laboratory to develop a new paradigm in the ability to define ultra-small devices, Extreme Ultra-Violet lithography. Furthermore, the 1990s saw Sandia SUMMIT™, a groundbreaking capability in surface micromachining. Established and start-up companies are using SUMMIT™ to bring unique new devices to the marketplace. Lastly, the decade of the 1990s also saw the development of a broad range of capabilities to make novel microsensors.

The dawn of the new millennium saw no let up in Sandia's leadership in realizing the full promise of microsystems. The Micro Chem Lab is but one example of Sandia's growing capability to develop an integrated microsystem. Microsystems provide options for refurbishing the enduring nuclear stockpile as well as enabling new capabilities in future weapons that could hold hardened and deeply buried targets at risk.

What does the future hold? It holds a safe and reliable nuclear weapons stockpile that provides an enduring deterrent for the nation to address the global challenges of the 21st century. What else — use your imagination! Imagine microsystems that generate their own power, energy-saving optoelectronic devices to replace light bulbs, microsystems that can detect the minutest amount of explosives or biological agents, and microsystems that work around the clock to identify the first sign of a disease.

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