The National Science Foundation has renewed Cornell University's Nanofabrication Facility's (CNF) funding for a further five years.

The CNF, which supports research into ultrasmall devices for medicine, high-speed communications and automotive safety, was founded 20 years ago. It has about 450 users from universities, private industry and government laboratories.

The facility is a member of the National Nanofabrication Users Network (NNUN), which provides nanofabrication facilities for about 1,000 users at Cornell, Howard University, Pennsylvania State University, Stanford and the University of California at Santa Barbara. The NSF renewed NNUN's budget at $4.4 million a year, up to a total of $23 million over five years. This funding is about 10 percent higher than the network's present budget. CNF's share of NSF funding for the past five years has been $1.7 million a year. It is not known if its new funding also will increase by 10 percent over the current amount.

"The new funds will permit some increase in staffing and equipment," says Alton Clark, associate director of CNF. At present, he says, NNUN is limited by the availability of staff to serve nanofabrication users, many of whom are relatively inexperienced.

Among the experienced Cornell users of CNF is Peter Krusius, professor of electrical engineering, who has projects involving ultrasmall electronic devices. Another Cornell user is John Blakely, professor of materials science and engineering, who is investigating thin films, silicate glasses and semiconductors.

One of the great advantages for Cornell in being a member of a network is that NNUN supports advanced equipment valued at about $50 million. By concentrating this equipment at just five sites, the NSF is able to provide a much higher level of nanofabrication support than would otherwise be possible.