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Impact of NIST Research and Services
ET.gov Promotes NIST's XML Schema and Instance Validation Service
NIST's XML (eXtensible Markup Language) Schema and Instance Validation Service develops tools and testing services that promote more efficient and consistent development of XML Schemas. XML Schemas are a language for describing the structure and constraining the contents of XML (e.g., elements, attributes, order, data types, and default values) document. The NIST-developed tools have helped several organizations and communities of interest in part thanks to publicity on Emerging Technology.gov (a.k.a. ET.gov), a website established to facilitate the identification, discovery, and formation of communities of practice (CoPs) around emerging technology (ET) components and specifications of interest to government agencies. Emergency Technology.gov has a process that consists of eight stages: 1. Identification, 2. Subscription, 3. Stewardship, 4. Graduation, 5. Budgeting, 6. Acquisition, 7. Maintenance, and 8. Retirement/Replacement. The NIST-developed tools were promoted to Stage 4 – at this point, components are considered to have been demonstrated by communities of practice (CoPs) to be technically viable and to have practical utility. Emerging information technologies "graduate" to become relatively mature information technology components and, thus, become candidates for consideration by the Chief Information Office (CIO) Council's (COIC) Services Subcommittee for inclusion in CORE.gov for government-wide use. Individual government agencies who have the most compelling business needs and have participated in the CoPs considering each component are prime candidates to become early adopters.
NIST has been a leading government partner with a group of Federal Information Technology professionals that formed the XML Schema Interoperability Working Group under the Data Architecture Subcommittee of the Federal CIO Council. This is home to interested parties working towards developing a repository of XML Schema naming and design rules, and tests for the use of those rules in XML Schemas. Members of the Working Group are the initial beneficiaries of NIST's XML Schema and Instance Validation Service.
Contact: KC Morris, 301 975 8286
Programmatic/Technical Accomplishments
The Atom-based Dimensional Metrology Project Awarded Large DARPA Contract
MEL’s atom-based dimensional metrology project was awarded a five-year, three-phase Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract to conduct collaborative research in atomically precise positioning, patterning and metrology. NIST is a leading collaborator in the Zyvex-led Atomically Precise Manufacturing (APM) program, one of the Tip Based Nanofabrication Programs funded by DARPA. NIST will work with Zyvex, The University of Illinois, The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), and others on Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) tip development and characterization. This will include characterization of tip structures via Field ion microscopy (FIM), Field Emission Microscopy (FEM), x-section scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques as well as characterizing the STM tips operational characteristics on atomic lattices. The atom-based dimensional project has published a number of results in this area over the years and was solicited to participate in the DARPA program. MEL will also participate in MicroElectroMechanical systems (MEMS) scanning element design for large arrays of actuated tips as well as help characterize a the 3D Passivation process to be developed at UTD. NIST will help test passivated 3D nanostructures and develop techniques for atomic scale substrate preparation and measurements, processes critical to the success of nanomanufacturing applications. The long term goal of this program is to develop economically viable manufacturing solutions at the nanometer scale that involve atomically precise patterning.
Contact: Rick Silver, 301 975 5609
MEL’s Manufacturing Data Exchange Testbed Team Released New Test Service
MEL’s Manufacturing Data Exchange Testbed Team released the Schema Authoring and Testing environment software, also known as Schema Quality of Design tool (QOD) and Naming and Design Rule (NDR) Profile schema. In collaboration with NIST for over ten year, the Open Application Group (OAGi) announced the release of NIST’s new test suites and free automated testing services for OAGi's Naming and Design Rules 9.0 specification. The test suite and testing service can be found on NIST’s QOD website http://nist.gov/qod.
NIST’s Quality of Design Tool is a set of online services that tests XML schemas for conformance against a given set of design rules. Via the QOD website, users can submit schemas and have the system automatically evaluate them and posts the results. QOD assists programmer to assure that they are consistently using XML Schema for the specification of information. Consistent design of XML schemas within an organization or single integration project reduces the number and the severity of interoperability problems. In addition, this consistency makes the XML schema easier to extend, understand, implement, and maintain; and, it paves the way for automated testing and mapping. Applying best practices is one way to achieve this design consistency.
Contact: KC Morris, 301 975 8286
Application Protocol on Dimensional Inspection Approved as International Standard
Recently, the MEL-led Application Protocol (AP) 219 on Dimensional Inspection Information Exchange was approved as ISO International Standard ISO 10303-219. This standard is one of a series of closely related standards on automated manufacturing developed by a team of experts under Subcommttee (SC) 4 (Industrial Data) of ISO Technical Committee TC 184 on Industrial Automation Systems and Integration. AP 219 is an information standard developed using the modeling principles of STEP (STandard for the Exchange of Product data) and the modeling language EXPRESS. The SC4 work involves modeling of industrial, technical and scientific data to support electronic communication and commerce. This standard enables information exchange between automated systems that develop and use dimensional inspection data, such as coordinate measuring machines and automated manufacturing systems. It contains sections on the modeling of dimensions and tolerances, inspection features, and manufacturing features. The Subcommttee provided strong coordination of the modeling of related concepts, thereby improving interoperability between automated systems sharing data about the same products and eliminating redundancy caused by creation of the same information by different systems. To accomplish this, the group harmonized information requirements by different users the harmonization of information requirements. The aerospace industry makes extensive use of STEP, and applications are growing in the automotive and shipbuilding industries as well (H. Mason, http://www.iso.org/iso/pr1076-step_supporting_innovation_2006.pdf). The AP 219 project was led by MEL’s Theodore Vorburger. Others contributing to the work were Simon Frechette, Larry Welsch, Shaw Feng, and Howard Harary (MEL), as well as contractors Len Slovensky (Northrop Grumman).and Bill Danner (Seneca-it.com).
Contact: Ted Vorburger, 301 975 3493
Recognition
MEL’s Richard Silver Elected Fellow of the SPIE
MEL optical physicist Richard Silver was elected Fellow of the SPIE and received recognition for the achievement at this year’s Advanced Lithography symposium. SPIE is an international society dedicated to advancing an interdisciplinary approach to the science and application of light. SPIE Fellows are members of distinction who have made significant scientific and technical contributions in the multidisciplinary fields of optics, photonics, and imaging. They are honored for their technical achievement, for their service to the general optics community, and to SPIE in particular. Rick was recognized as an international leader in the fields of optical metrology and the emerging field of atom-based dimensional metrology. He was cited for leading work in optical measurements of semiconductor overlay and high resolution optical critical dimensional metrology and as leader of the scatterfield optical metrology effort with developments of new high resolution optical techniques being adopted in several optical platforms. His work has helped extend image-based optical microscopy for overlay metrology. Also acknowledged were his contributions in developing Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) roadmap metrology components and as a key contributor to the SEMATECH overlay metrology advisory group. The citation recognized several overview presentations on overlay metrology at international semiconductor manufacturing industry workshops and technical lead on multiple research projects in optical overlay metrology funded from industry sources.
Contact: Rick Silver, 301 975 5609 |
