Liftoff Proposal Submitted to NSF SBIR Program
SiMPore submitted a Phase I SBIR proposal to NSF for liftoff of microporous silicon oxide and nanoporous nitride. This is a resubmission of the NSF Nanomanufacturing proposal that Tom and Bob submitted last Oct. and just heard last week that it was declined. That proposal was liftoff of nanoporous membranes using inorganic scaffold materials. Several of the reviewers suggested the topic might be more appropriate for SBIR.
Details of proposal:
Title: Development of Large Area Nanomembranes for Biomedical Applications
PI: Jamie Roussie; Co-PI: Tom Gaborski; Other personnel: Josh Miller, Bob Carter
Budget: $150k, 6 months (1/1/15 – 6/30/15)
Objectives:
The specific objectives for the Phase I effort are to demonstrate the efficacy of the liftoff technique as a means of scaling up the manufacture of these two membranes. As measures of success we will use the following criteria for each membrane type:
Microporous silicon oxide (for high content screening):
- at least 6 mm in diameter (appropriate for insert of 24-well cell culture plate)
- free of pin-holes or tears in membrane and also good adhesion to SU-8 scaffold
- flat across area of scaffold grid segment to enable single field of focus in optical microscopy
- burst pressure strength of at least 1 psi differential pressure across membrane
- viability as a cell culture substrate for primary human cells
Nanoporous silicon nitride (for ambulatory hemodialysis)
- at least 25 x 25 mm sections (appropriate for integration into a compact hemodialysis filter assembly)
- free of pin-holes or tears in membrane and also good adhesion to SU-8 scaffold
- burst pressure strength of at least 6 psi differential pressure
- Nitrogen permeance of at least 250,000 ml/min/bar
Plan:
Solid boarder boxes = SiMPore; dotted line boxes = RIT.