Core Competency
A sample of the facilities available at the Institute are:
The importance of nanoscience and nanotechnology has Ied to the launching of the Institute Nanoscience Initiative (INI). Under this program, state-of-the-art facilities like high resolution transmission and scanning electron microscopes, scanning probe microscopes, near-field optical microscopes, e-beam writing etc. were set up and research in following areas of (i) biosensors, (ii) nanocoi1Jposites, (ii i) nanotubes, (iv) nanocatalyst and devices are undertaken by faculty members of various departments.
The National Facility for Semi-Solid Forming (SSF) is an innovative manufacturing technology to produce high-quality, near-net-shaped castings with superior properties. This cutting edge technology, being developed for the first time in India,will be transferred to Indian engineering industries and enable them to be internationally competitive.
The Integrated Micro systems programme focuses on creation and integration of micro and nanosystems that span the fields of Nanoelectronics, Microelectomechanical systems(MEMS), Nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), bioMEMS, Polymer MEMS, System-on-Chip (SOC), hybrid circuits and packaging. There are more than 40 faculty members from 15 departments and centers participating in this program.
Various wind tunnels — supersonic, hyper-sonic, intermittent supersonic, cascade, rotating cascade, low speed, boundary layer and shock tunnels, for model testing of wind sensitive structures.
Several flumes of different sizes, including sophisticated tilting flumes for free surface flow studies, sediment transportation and flow measurement for testing hydrological equipment.
High voltage AC/DC/impulse generators, high current generators, repetitive surge generators, voltage dividers, standard capacitors, 4 channel impulse analysis sysem (HiAS-743), Reference impulse calibrator, spectrum analyzers, High-speed oscilloscopes, Arbitrary waveform generators, ERA Model-5 PD detector, RIV measuring setup, Lab model of a GIS, Keithley Sourcemeter, Electrometer and 8.5-digit digital multimeter.
Chemiluminescence NOx anaIyzer, Multi-component FTIR gas analyzer and NDIR based CO/CO2/O2 analyzer for air pollution studies.
MALDI and electron spray mass spectrometers for protein analysis
Testing equipment like the computer controlled DARTEC machine capable of high strain rate deformation studies.
Optical measurement facilities are available for measurement of second generation efficiency in powders and crystals, measurement of second-order nonlinear optical co-efficient in solution of two photon Rayleigh scattering and measurement of fluorescence lifetime in solution in the nanosecond range.
Thermal and molecular weight analysis of polymers, spectral analysis of various kinds.
Sophisticated facilities like Transmission Electron Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Powder X-ray diffractometer and Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopes for carrying out TEM, SEM and XRD,ESR investigations.
Thin films processing system and high vacuum deposition system which can accommodate 450 mm X 450 mm samples.
A library, which has more than 5 lakh volumes of periodicals, books, technical reports and standards. It receives 1734 c current periodicals. The National Centre for Science Information at the Institute also provides Sci Gate and E-JIS e-information services, IISc digital archives (e Prints and ETD), test-beds for institutional digital repositories and online journal indexing, databases and technologies related to database access.
While most of these facilities are used to conduct frontier research, the Institute has always ensured their availability for industrial and scientific consultancy exercises that are intellectually challenging and socially relevant.