University of Twente receives five million for research on chip design, friction and stents

The University of Twente (UT) is launching three research projects in collaboration with the high tech sector. These projects relate to chip design, friction and wear processes, and patient-specific stents. The total budget for these projects is 4.9 million euros, writes the university in a press release.

The projects have been initiated in the Top Technology Twente programme ‘Connecting Industries’. The first project is about the development and production of integrated circuits and computer chips. In this project, UT is developing new design techniques to create analogue circuits in advanced CMOS nodes. At present, nanoscale transistors (only a few atoms wide) are generally used to scale up digital circuits. However, analogue circuits are proving very hard to use in these very advanced technologies.
The ACDACT project comes under the recently started initiative Chip Tech Twente.

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Stents and friction

The second project called MechLifePerfect aims to make friction and wear processes in a variety of systems predictable. This invariably involves lubricated rolling contacts. Reducing friction and wear leads to significant energy savings and extension of the useful life of components. By making relevant friction and wear processes predictable, this research can contribute to developing more efficient engines, production processes, and suchlike, as well as to more efficient maintenance.

The last project involves research into patient-specific stents. A stent is placed during angioplasty. It is a tube to keep a narrowing blood vessel open. However, present-day stents inserted in arteries are at risk of rupture and not sufficiently patient-specific. This can lead to complications and drastic follow-up treatment. This project aims to develop imaging models that facilitate the production of patient-specific stents tailored to suit the patient’s body, based on scans.

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