Sandia News Tips

August 24, 1998
Media Relations Department
Sandia National Laboratories
Contact: Howard Kercheval
(505) 844-7842 [email protected]


SANDIA DEVELOPING ARCHITECTURAL, INFRASTRUCTURE SURETY
The bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, and US
attacks on terrorist targets in Afghanistan and Sudan are just the latest
in disasters raising public awareness of the importance of architectural
and infrastructure integrity. Sandia's Architectural Surety(SM) program
has been studying events like those -- as well as hurricanes, earthquakes,
blizzards, and others -- with the goal of building stronger buildings that
protect the people inhabiting them and remain standing and useable longer.
The program uses Sandia risk management methodologies and technical
capabilities to examine vulnerabilities and identify changes in
architectural design, building codes, or construction standards that would
improve their performance in natural disasters, terrorist attacks, or
other out-of-the-ordinary situations. <
http://www.sandia.gov/LabNews/LN08-28-98/surety_story.htm -- site active
8/28/98>


SCIENTISTS MIMIC SEASHELL STRUCTURE TO MAKE TOUGH COATINGS
Researchers from Sandia and the University of New Mexico have developed a
rapid and efficient method to self-assemble diverse materials into
coatings that mimic the very fine interlayering that produces the
strength, hardness, and toughness of seashells. The process permits rapid
formation of tough, strong, optically transparent coatings suitable for
applications such as automotive finishes, as well as coatings for
implements and optical lenses. A preliminary analysis shows the coating to
be more than twice as hard as the same materials mixed randomly. The
process was described in a paper published in the July 16 edition of
Nature.


INEXPENSIVE SANDIA SUBSTRATE KEEPS TODAY'S HOT CHIPS COOLER
In a few years a dime-size microchip may be home to as many as 10 million
transistors, a development necessary for tomorrow's more compact, complex
micro devices. But the electrical resistance created as all those snug
circuits zap electrons back and forth are causing even today's tightly
packaged microprocessors to get really hot. And hot microchips and printed
circuit boards fail faster as their tiny interconnects succumb to the
rigors of cyclic heating and cooling. Even more damaging are temperature
gradients across chips that can cause tiny cracks and stress voids to form
in a chip's delicate wiring. An apparent solution is in the offing,
however: the development by Sandia researchers of an innovative approach
that uses an intricate network of microscopic, coolant-filled passages
formed directly within the substrate to remove heat from microchips and
printed circuit boards and keep them closer to their optimum operating
temperatures.


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