Inside OMNT

"Wide Bandgap Devices" watch scientific novelties concerning devices and systems, based on wide bandgap semiconductors like SiC, GaN, Diamond,…. Experts from this topic give their expertise and survey in material field (bulk growth, epitaxy), technology improvements (design/modeling, processes, characterizations), advanced devices, packaging and systems integration (modules, drivers, protections).

Fields of applications are : Power devices, high frequency devices, sensors, electronic for high temperature and harsh environment.

The Wide Bandgap Devices group will provide a state of the art of this topic be published in the next annual report and will present this synthesis during the annual OMNT seminiare scheduled on february 5th, 2013.

The OMNT is pleased to announce the release of the novel ObservatoryNANO report entitled "Nanotechnology EHS Landscape Document". Co-authored by IOM, CEA (OMNT), RIVM and EMPA, this document aims to provide a map and concise overview of key organisations and their activities within the field worldwide in relation to nano-EHS. This landscaping document is intended to support communication of efforts, outlining those key initiatives, activities and projects within this area.

Keeping track of this rapidly changing field is and will remain a huge challenge. This document therefore only provides a snapshot of efforts on-going within 2011, and we acknowledge that it will change with time.

Click here to download the full document (PDF). For more information, visit de ObservatoryNANO website.

Four additional ObservatoryNANO Briefings have been published.

Briefing n°7: Nano-enabled protective textiles

Briefing n°8: Nanotechnologies for anti-counterfeiting applications

Briefing n°9: Nanotechnology for flat planel displays

Briefing n°10: Applications for photocatalysis

The ObservatoryNANO Briefings focus on topics of particular interests in terms of economic potential, scientific breakthroughs, or impact on the European citizen. These four page reports offer wide ranging analysis in an easily accessible format.

All Briefings are accessible on the ObservatoryNANO website.

In april, the 6th EOOE meeting was held in Barcelona (Spain). Those meetings are now framed by the european project Flexnet (http://www.noe-flexnet.eu/public/).

During this last meeting, more than 25 european experts of the field have exchanged their knowledge and the results of their scientific watch. Two invited speakers : Hagen Klauk from the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart & Yvan Bonnassieux from Ecole Polytechnique ParisTech have presented results on the topic : "From compact modeling to circuit conception".

The next EOOE meeting will be held at the end of october in the University of Patras in Greece.

The Nanosafety Newsletter is now accessible at www.omnt.fr/index.php/fr/actualite/newsletter. Released every two weeks and specifically dedicated to Environmental Health and Safety impacts of nanoparticles and nanomaterials, the newsletter presents 3 headings:

- News & Reports: a digest of the main reports, documents and web articles;

- Events & Announcements: a selection of up-coming events (national and international conferences, workshops or seminars), calls for consultation, project applications, etc...

- Articles & Reviews: a selection of recent scientific articles (peer-reviewed articles).

Additional information and related documents are availbale by clicking on the links.

Happy Reading !

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The 3^rd meeting of the European Observatory on NanoSafety (EONS) was held in Paris on October 6, 2010. Organized by the OMNT, this series of meetings is an initiative launched within the ENPRA consortium. Aimed at reviewing recent trends and research progresses in the field of environmental, health and safety issues associated with nanomaterials, EONS meetings involve a panel of experts including ENPRA partners and French experts from the OMNT.

Pr. Wim de Jong from the Dutch Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM, NL) offered a state-of–the-art on “In vivo kinetics and tissue distribution of solid nanoparticles”. Experts then presented and discussed a selection of recent articles from the literature including studies on nanoparticles detection and characterization, risk assessment and nanotoxicology.

Proceedings of the meeting will be published in the 3^rd EONS report (to be released in December 2010). Excerpts from the first and second EONS reports are available (as pdf to download).

The next meeting of the European Observatory on Organice Electronic (EOOE) will be held in Berlin on October 13, 2010. This meeting will gather experts from OMNT as well as from the European Networks of Excellence PolyNet and FlexNet and will discuss recent research progresses in Organic Electronic. For this fifth edition, Dr. Sandro Tedde from SIEMENS and Dr. Piero Cosseddu will respectively present reviews on organic electronic photodectors and on keynote on chemical and mechanical OTFT based sensors.