The Triple Crown of R&D 100 Awards: Lab researcher wins prestigious award three years in a row

Honored for work in microfabrication and microelectronics technology

James Maxwell

September 29, 2010—In 1963, the editors of R&D Magazine established the annual R&D 100 Awards competition to identify the 100 most technologically significant new products of the year from multiple disciplines. Winning one of the prestigious R&D 100 Awards, known as the “Oscars of Invention,” provides a mark of excellence known to industry, government, and academia as proof that the product is one of the most innovative ideas of the year, nationally and internationally.

It also provides the important initial push to attract industry attention and help companies introduce a new product that can compete successfully in the marketplace. Previous winners include such household names as Polacolor film (1963), the halogen lamp (1974), the fax machine (1975), the printer (1986), the Nicoderm antismoking patch (1992), lab on a chip (1996), and HDTV (1998), among many others.

James Maxwell of the Lab's Nuclear Counterterrorism Response (IAT-3) has enjoyed such recognition for his work for the past three years in a row. Maxwell has been involved in laser and microchemical processing for more than 14 years. His work has pushed the frontiers of nanotechnology with groundbreaking technologies that have won an R&D 100 Award each year since 2008.

In 2008, Maxwell won an R&D 100 Award for Laser-Weave, a process involving hyperbaric laser chemical vapor deposition that grows high-strength inorganic fibers into useful shapes and complex patterns, or braid or weave strong, cost-effective cables, cloth, or composites for micro-electrical mechanical systems used in industry.

“To put it simply, we grow things from gases using lasers,” said Maxwell, who holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering with a specialty in laser microchemical processing from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. “Laser-Weave is able to produce carbon fibers up to 13 centimeters long in a single second, and many other materials at millimeter per second growth rates. It can be used in anything from the inside of your toaster to exhaust nozzles in rocket engines,” he said.

The next year, Maxwell built upon Laser-Weave to develop 2009 R&D 100 Award-winning Lasonix, microelectronic fabrication technology that enables hybrid circuits to be automatically integrated through a single tool without the use of mechanical assembly or circuit boards. Using Lasonix, Maxwell and his team have created the first-ever three-dimensional diodes in the form of fibers, which could allow for greater computing speeds, smaller electronic systems, and more capable and complex circuits and systems.

Maxwell’s success continues with his most recent win of a 2010 R&D 100 Award for Ultraconductus, a technology that has the potential to increase the conductivity of metallic wiring by at least 100 times, useful for high-voltage cables used in power transmission, as well as electrical wires used in cell phones and specialized devices.

Using Ultraconductus-produced cables in all new home and construction installations instead of traditional cables would yield annual energy savings of approximately 150 billion kilowatt-hours of energy and an associated $15 billion in cost savings by replacing just one-half of existing high-voltage cables with Ultraconductus-produced cables. Additionally, expensive cooling is not needed to achieve ultraconductivity, and it creates lighter-weight, smaller cross-section conductors that greatly reduce the infrastructure needed to support heavy cabling.

Industry is paying attention to Maxwell’s technologies. His string of R&D 100 Award wins has garnered interest and opened doors. “Already, companies are approaching the [LANL] Technology Transfer Division looking to license or incorporate this technology,” he said.

Maxwell is driven by a curiosity of the world around him, the wish to serve his country, and the desire to raise living standards by developing superior products and technologies and making them accessible to the general public. “I learned a long time ago that engineering and science are what ultimately build wealth in societies,” he said. “Innovators help society as a whole, and it’s very exciting to be a part of that.”

For more information and FAQs, visit www.lanl.gov/rd100, or to learn more about TT, visit www.lanl.gov/partnerships. For more information about R&D Magazine or the R&D 100 Awards, visit: www.rdmag.com.