New laboratory added

Warwick RI, USA, December 1, 2000- RITEC announces the expansion of its Warwick, RI facility with the construction of a laboratory that will be used for new- product development, in addition to the repair, testing and calibration of current products. This laboratory increases the size of our Warwick facility by 13% and doubles the area devoted to engineering, new product development and testing.

Senior Engineer hire expands capabilities

Warwick RI, USA, October 11, 2000- RITEC is pleased to announce that Arthur Bernier has joined our technical staff as Senior Engineer. In his 38 years of experience, which began with the military, Art has been involved in the development of bar code readers, computer peripherals, fire control systems, access control systems, test automation, and all of the associated software. He is also a Certified Netware Engineer and was previously the operations manager of a $12 million dollar facility. Art is involved in the design of our new instrumentation.

McKenna contributes chapter to Handbook of Elastic Properties of Solids, Liquids and Gases

Warwick RI, USA, December 1, 2000- IRITEC is pleased to announce that Academic Press has included a chapter entitled, ‘Novel Ultrasonic Measurement Systems Utilizing Phase-Sensitive-Gated Interferometry’ by Mark J. McKenna, Ph.D., Vice President of RITEC, in Volume I of the new Handbook of Elastic Properties of Solids, Liquids, and Gases, edited by Levy, Bass and Stern.

Volume I deals with “Dynamic Methods for Measuring the Elastic Properties of Solids.” Mark's chapter discusses the measurement approach used in RITEC’s Advanced Measurement Systems, RAM-10000 and RAM-5000 along with our unique SNAP System for the Study of Nonlinear Acoustic Properties. Additional information on the handbook can be found at the information page for the handbook at Academic Press's website.

National Science Foundation awards SBIR Grant to RITEC

Warwick RI, USA, May 1, 2000- RITEC proudly acknowledges receipt of the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant will be used for a project entitled, "SBIR Phase II: Acoustic Microcavitation Assisted Fine Cleaning of Post-Chemical Mechanical Planarizing (CMP) Wafers" under the direction of Mark J. McKenna. This award is effective May 1, 2000 and expires April 30, 2002.

RITEC's award was the only SBIR grant for the state of Rhode Island, and represents one of only 196 Phase II grants awarded nationally by the NSF. The acceptance rate for SBIR proposals is approximately 10%. RITEC will be collaborating with the Kansas State University in performing the research under this grant, designed to prototype a small, efficient ultrasonic cleaner for the semiconductor industry.

According to the NSF website: The SBIR/STTR Program stimulates technological innovation in the private sector, by strengthening the role of small business concerns in meeting Federal research and development needs, increasing the commercial application of federally supported research results, and fostering and encouraging participation by socially and economically disadvantaged persons and women-owned small businesses in technological innovation. The primary objective of the NSF SBIR/STTR Program is to increase the incentive and opportunity for small firms to undertake cutting-edge, high risk, high quality scientific, engineering, or science/engineering education research that would have a high potential economic payoff if the research is successful.

Chick contributes chapter to
Ultrasonic Instruments and Devices

Warwick RI, USA, January 1, 2000- RITEC is pleased to announce that Academic Press has included a chapter on ‘Research Instruments and Systems’ by Bruce B. Chick, Chairman of RITEC, in Volume II of the recently published Physical Acoustics: Ultrasonic Instruments and Devices II, Volume XXIV in the Physical Acoustics series, edited by R.N. Thurston, Allan D. Pierce, and Emmanuel Papadakis.
Volume XXIV deals with “Dynamic Methods for Measuring the Elastic Properties of Solids.” First published in 1964, the Physical Acoustics series is one of the most prestigious references for acoustics and ultrasonics in the physics and engineering community.
Bruce Chick has also authored, along with Rohn Truell and Charles Elbaum, the famous Ultrasonics Methods in Solid State Physics published by Academic Press.