S[&]T IMPACT
The employees at S[&]T deal with extreme engineering on a daily basis. They help develop systems that push technologies to their extremes (from the very small to the very large and very precise at the same time).
The S[&]T Engineers have a reputation for doing the impossible, or at least what most people think is impossible. The S[&]T engineers work with others at the top laboratories and in R&D centres of leading technological companies to address priorities demanding even smaller parts, faster times, greater power, more complexity, and higher precision.
Here are just a few examples of extreme engineering projects being conducted at the moment that involve engineers of S[&]T:high tech systems for the silicon chip industry
One of our customers is involved in the design and manufacturing of the next generation machines for the silicon chip industry, using extreme ultra violet light (EUV). They are intended to hit the market at the end of this decade. The requirements for these machines push the limits of what can be achieved. The precision of the handling of the silicon wafers is nanometres, the accuracy of measurements in the order of the size of an atom.
Besides advanced knowledge on optics, precision mechanics and control systems, these projects require also advanced knowledge on molecular and (nano)particle contamination control, which forms a considerable problem in high vacuum, ultra clean systems.
next generation radio telescope lofar
The basic technology of radio telescopes has not changed since the 1960's: large mechanical dish antennas collect signals before a receiver detects and analyses them. Half the cost of these telescopes lies in the steel and moving structure. A telescope 100x larger than existing instruments would therefore be unaffordable. New technology is required to make the next step in sensitivity needed to unravel the secrets of the early universe and the physical processes in the centres of active galactic nuclei. LOFAR is the first telescope of this new sort, using an array of simple omni-directional antennas instead of mechanical signal processing with a dish antenna. The antennas are simple enough but there are a lot of them - 25000 in the full LOFAR design. To make radio pictures of the sky with adequate sharpness, these antennas are to be arranged in clusters that are spread out over an area of ultimately 350 km in diameter. Data transport requirements are in the range of many Tera-bits/sec and the processing power needed is tens of Terra-FLOPS.
future launchers
What kind of space vehicle will be lifting off around the year 2020? There are numerous possibilities, and a range of technical and economic solutions are being addressed. Europe is already thinking about the post-Ariane 5 generation, with ESA’s Future Launchers Preparatory Programme (FLPP). This programme should support the development of enabling technologies needed for the next generation of launchers – expendable, reusable or somewhere in-between – while satisfying the market’s stringent economic requirements. Today S[&]T Engineers are busy conducting studies and building technology demonstrators for the different possible designs of the Future Launchers.