In the Spotlight:
Dr. Michael Spaid VP of Product Development Cambrios Technologies Corporation
Did you always know you would be an engineer? I did not start my education studies or career planning pursuing engineering. In college, I received the dean’s honors scholarship primarily for music, playing the piano all four years of school. During my second year, however, I committed myself to engineering and have been dedicated to the craft ever since. I must thank my high school teacher for sparking my interest in chemical engineering. Two years later, I received my Bachelor of Science degree from Tulane University. Following my time in New Orleans, I moved out West and obtained my Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University in chemical engineering. After completing my schooling, I began my career with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Maryland and later worked for Corning in upstate New York. Prior to joining Cambrios in 2005, I was the director of engineering with Caliper Life Sciences – microfluidics. In my current role at Cambrios, I’m proudly working in the field of electronic materials, as Cambrios makes coatable suspensions of silver nanowires, called ClearOhm® materials, that are used as transparent conductors in touchscreens, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) lighting, Organic Photo Voltaic Cells and other applications.
Can you tell us about your favorite project? Between 2005 and 2006, Cambrios was telling customers that we could make transparent conductors using our silver nanowires, and in spite of some impressive specifications we delivered.
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Customers could not quite comprehend the product and asked us for samples. In those days, we were making small test coupons in the lab – with the lengthy development process of one week per test coupon. There is no doubt, the samples developed were the most precious items in the lab and I, along with my team, were extremely proud of what we’d accomplished. When we showed the prototype (a piece of film coated with silver nanowires) to customers, they were unable to see anything – the sample looked simply like a piece of clear plastic film. In response, we explained that our product was truly transparent – in no way visible to the naked eye. While still skeptical, we knew we had the best ingredient to gain their approval – we showed them transmission measurements and resistance data. As expected, they were awed at our achievement. Cambrios’ nanowires on film were more transparent at a given conductivity than anything they had seen in their extensive years of expertise and we still hold that distinction. Today, Cambrios’ ClearOhm® materials can enable millions of meters of coated film, yet the first test coupons were definitely nostalgic, and both challenging and exciting to create.
What are your favorite tools? The work horse optical microscope is one of my favorite tools, as it is very simple and useful. It is surprising that our nanowires can be visualized with an optical microscope since their diameters are smaller than the wavelength of light. Using dark-field imaging, it is possible to see the image of the nanowires on the plastic film surface. It produces a great picture of the random network of nanowires that is covering the substrate, creating the transparent conductor. Other tools in the lab are also useful, for example, the scanning electron microscope (SEM) is used to get higher resolution images of the nanowires.