National Institute of Standards and Technology - Texas instruments industrial collaboratory testbed.

Abstract

A portion of the mission of the NIST Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory (MEL) is to improve and advance length metrology in aid of U.S. Industry. This responsibility is found within the Precision Engineering Division (PED). The successful development of a ''Collaborator'' for TelePresence Microscopy provides an important new tool to promote technology transfer in the area of length metrology and measurement technology. NIST and Texas Instruments under the auspices of the National Automated Manufacturing Testbed (NAMT) and in collaboration with the University of Illinois are developing a microscopy collaborator testbed to demonstrate the value of telepresence microscopy within a large distributed manufacturing facility such as Texas Instruments and between organizations such as NET, Texas Instruments and Universities. Telepresence Microscopy is an application of the state-of-the-art Internet based technology to long-distance scientific endeavors. Long distance can refer to across the country or from one site within a company to another. Telepresence is currently being applied to electron microscopy in several locations where unique analytical facilities (such as those at NIST) can be utilized via Internet connection. Potentially this can provide tremendous savings to a company where asset sharing can now be rapidly and effectively accessed or remote unique facilities can be utilized without the requirement of expensive and time consuming travel. This methodology is not limited to electron microscopy, but its power is currently exemplified by its application to that form of microscopy