Holidays during this time of year, when days are short, emphasize light. Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Light, commemorates the miracle of a one-day supply of oil miraculously lasting eight days during the Maccabees battle for freedom and allowing for the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem. In Christianity, the Wise Men followed a bright…
We live an exciting period of innovation. Electric cars are being rolled out by mainstream car companies; self-driving vehicles are being road-tested; farms and grocery stores use robots to do repetitive tasks; medical diagnostics is taking just a few minutes or hours to pinpoint an illness; and, many products from dental braces to aerospace components…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) awarded the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Center for Advanced Sensor Technology (CAST), a 3-year grant for the commercialization of a microfluidic device for Rapid bioburden detection in pharmaceutical production. Potomac Photonics was selected as a sub-contractor to focus on the design, scale-up and manufacturing of the microfluidic…
Publisher: De Gruyter ISBN: 978-3-11-063633 To be Published September 2020 Click here for Book Together with De Gruyter Publishing house, Potomac Photonics Inc. will be launching a new book in 2020. Unlike your traditional microfluidics books that cover theory and fundamentals, this book aims to look beyond that and approach elements that affect all aspects…
Any company is only as good as its people. While advanced technology can expand manufacturing capabilities, humans are still essential to design, program, monitor, and yes, repair, tools like laser cutters, CNC micro machines, 3D Printers and robots. For many manufacturing jobs, a college degree is not required but skill-specific training is essential. One case…
Nanoimprint lithography is a method by which nanoscale features are fabricated at potentially low cost and with high throughput patterning usually in thermoplastics. Over the past 20 – 30 years this technology has rapidly developed into a legitimate lithographic technology that has found application within several industries, mainly Photonics, Semiconductors, microfluidics, and biomimetic substrate structures…
What are shadow masks, and why are they useful? Shadow masks are thin plates with small holes and features patterned into them, used to direct and concentrate electron beams. They can provide a more cost-effective and efficient alternative to photolithography, and overturn the need for photo resist or e-beam lithography. One might use a shadow…
Cells. The smallest units of life. They make up who we are, and so, it’s imperative we become progressively educated about them. Cell culturing allows scientists to grow and maintain cells, in vitro. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz are currently developing a more efficient way to monitor human cell cultures, encased in…
This week, I had the opportunity to work in the labs with our Director of Operations, Mike Davis. He explained and demonstrated the complete process of production for a customer’s part. The Process In the words of Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War, “Every battle is won before it is fought.” This is…
Anna The Manufacturing Maven: Blog #1 What are Microfluidic Devices? If you know Potomac, you know that “Microfluidic” is a buzzword around here. But chances are, you don’t understand exactly what that means. According to the National Cancer Institute, a microfluidic device is an “an instrument that uses very small amounts of…
RAPID +TCT is without doubt the premier 3D Printing conference and trade show in the nation. But this year something was different. Yes, the latest, greatest additive manufacturing innovations were at the forefront of discussions. Of course, industry gurus gave their usual predictions about the future of the industry. But something had changed. RAPID in…
Reflecting on the recent Earth Day, it seems that innovation has always been the key to solving problems. From laser inventors Schawlow and Townes to the original Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Hewlett and Packard, creative thinkers in science and engineering have tackled the world’s problems and turned them into opportunities for innovating solutions. Today’s climate change…
