A |
AEC: The Atomic Energy Commission. |
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AFM: Atomic Force Microscope. Tool for acquiring three-dimensional maps of very small structures. |
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AGS: Automated Gene Synthesizer. The AGS, now being designed, will be able to build customized genes in a matter of hours. |
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Aladdin: The electron storage ring at SRC. It’s a lamp; get it? |
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Annex: Building attached to SRC; home of CNTech’s E-beam, SEM, AFM, etc. |
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Alignment Beam: An Aladdin electron beam used for ring testing and diagnostics. |
B |
BCR: CNTech’s Beamline Cleanroom; home of the stepper. |
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Beam: 1) An electron beam circulating in Aladdin; 2) An electron beam in an SEM or E-beam writing tool; 3) A photon beam generated by Aladdin and delivered by a beamline. |
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Beamline: Vacuum components, filters and other optical elements for delivering light from a synchrotron port to an experimental station. |
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Beamline Manager: Person responsible for one of the SRC-operated beamlines. |
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Bending Magnets: Computer-controlled electromagnets located at each of the curved joints of the electron storage ring. The magnets change the path of electrons to create a continuous "ring" that is actually straight pipes with several joints. |
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Biotech: Biotechnology. Technology based on biological organisms or molecular biological techniques. |
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Biotechnology Center: A building on the UW-Madison campus that was created to encourage collaboration among faculty and staff. CNTech has laboratory and office space on the second floor. |
C |
Cleanroom: A climate- and particle-controlled workspace. Access and materials are controlled. Special cleanroom suits are required. |
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CMA: Cylindrical Mirror Analyzer. |
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CNTech: The Center for NanoTechnology; formerly the Center for X-ray Lithography (CXrL). |
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CSRF: Canadian Synchrotron Radiation Facility. |
D |
DLP: Digital Light Processing. A technology developed by Texas Instruments that shines light on moveable micromirrors and projects the light onto screens. It is the technology used in maskless array synthesizers. |
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DMD: Digital Micromirror Device. This is the computer chip that controls the micromirrors in digital light processing. |
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DNA microarray: A large collection of small sequences of DNA on a tiny surface of glass or silicon. Also called a gene chip or DNA chip. |
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DNA probe: A small single strand of DNA used to identify its complement. Oligonucleotides are the DNA probes used in DNA microarrays. |
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“Dump the beam”: At the end of its usable lifetime, an Aladdin electron beam is shut down to make way for a new injection. The shutdown is accomplished by commanding one of the synchrotron’s bending magnets to allow the beam to leave orbit and strike a target. This is called “dumping the beam.” It generates a burst of radiation, and is one of the reasons why the vault is sealed during injection. |
E |
E-beam: An electron beam focused, steered, and controlled by magnets and by electrostatic lenses, such as in an e-beam writer or an SEM. The beam in the synchrotron is usually called an “electron beam,” not an e-beam. |
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ERG: Extended-Range Grasshopper, an advanced version of this popular grazing-incidence grating monochromator in which the grating motion is computer, rather than mechanically controlled. |
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ES-1, etc.: Exposure Stations at CNTech. Located at the ends of beamlines, exposure stations control the delivery of radiation to sample. |
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Experimental station: A set of instrumentation and manipulators on the end of an Aladdin beamline, for controlling the irradiation of samples and for collecting data. |
F |
Front End: The interface between Aladdin and a beamline. Standard on all Aladdin ports, front ends consist of ion gauges with their associated electronics, gate valves, and local or remote controls for the valves. |
G |
Gene Expression: The process of making DNA into a readable form, which in turn creates cellular structures, usually proteins. DNA is copied as messenger RNA and so measurement of mRNA is often used to quantify gene expression. |
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Genome: The entire genetic code of a single organism. |
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Genomics: The study of genes and their expression. |
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Grasshopper: The grazing incidence Brown-Lien-Pruett grating monochromator. |
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Green Beam: A beam of energy such that undulator radiation is dominated by visible green light; used for testing and diagnosing undulator beamlines.It’s probably not useful for the exposures you want to do. |
H |
HEG: High Energy Grating. |
I |
Injection: The light intensity available from Aladdin ports decays over time, as the current in the Aladdin electron beam decays. At 8:00, 12:00, 6:00 and (usually) at 24:00, the Aladdin beam is dumped and a new beam is injected into the storage ring and brought up to operating energy. During injection, the vault is evacuated and sealed. |
K |
KRC: The Kegonsa Research Campus; an umbrella name for PSL, SRC, CNTech and maybe some other groups. |
L |
Lamp: The Aladdin storage ring. The phrase “The Lamp is lit” is used over the PA by operators to signal the end of injection and the opening of the vault. |
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LEG: Low Energy Grating. |
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LF15: Low emittance electron beam at 800 MeV. |
M |
MAS: Maskless array synthesizer. A tool the builds layered materials, such as DNA sequences, using light directed by micromirrors rather than physical masks. |
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Mask: A stencil-like design used in photolithography to control patterns. |
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MCR: CNTech’s Metrology Cleanroom. Here we have optical microscopes, and film thickness monitors. |
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MEG: Medium Energy Grating. |
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MF15: Low emittance electron beam at 1000MeV. |
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MURA: Midwestern Universities Research Association, the organization that built Tantalus (read the history of the SRC). |
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MutS: A bacterial protein that binds DNA that has one or more mismatched base pair. It is used to filter mutated DNA sequences. |
N |
Nanotech: Nanotechnology. Technology on the scale of 1 to 100 nanometers. It can be smaller than a twist of the DNA helix to as large as a virus. Nanotechnology is usually associated with computer circuits and electronic technology but is becoming increasingly associated with biological systems. |
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NIM: Normal Incidence Monochromator. |
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nm: nanometer. One-billionth of a meter, or one-thousandth of a micrometer. The diameter of a human hair is about 70,000 nanometers. |
O |
Oligos: Oligonucleotides. Short sequences of DNA. |
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OOD: Operator On Duty. |
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Operator: An SRC employee who manages injections, runs and maintains Aladdin, and can assist users with some beamline-related problems. |
P |
PA: A Public Address system. At KRC, you are on the PA after pressing “5” on any phone. |
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Party offence: Certain crimes at the lab will result in the perpetrator being expected to throw a party. The crime must usually be one that affects most or all other users at SRC. Examples will not be given. |
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PCR: This has two meanings for CNTech. It stands for CNTech’s Process Cleanroom. It also is the abbreviation for polymerase chain reaction, a molecular biological technique commonly used to amplify DNA. |
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PGM: Plane Grating Monochromator |
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Port: An opening on Aladdin to which a beamline attaches. Ports are located at Aladdin bending magnets, at which synchrotron radiation is produced. |
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PRT: Participating Research Team, a group of experimentalists that helped support the construction of one of the beamlines, and therefore has the right to use 75 percent of its time. |
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PSL: The Physical Sciences Lab. |
Q |
Quantum: Three weeks of access to a beamline. |
R |
Ring: The Aladdin electron storage ring. |
S |
SEM: Scanning Electron Microscope. A device for imaging and analyzing extremely small structures by manipulating electron beams. |
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SEYA: Seya-Namioka Monochromator. |
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siRNA: small interfering RNA. A short sequence of double-stranded RNA that interferes with gene expression and is a useful tool in understanding genes. |
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SGM: Spherical Grating Monochromator. |
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SNPs: Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms. A DNA sequence that is one nucleotide (A, T, C or G) different than another sequence. SNPs can be used to detect differences in individuals. |
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SRC: The Synchrotron Radiation Center. |
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Synchrotron: A system in which charged particles move in a closed orbit in an evacuated storage ring. The particles in the beam emit synchrotron radiation as they are magnetically accelerated around bends in the storage ring. Energy lost by the particles through this emission, is returned to them by interaction with a synchronized radio-frequency electromagnetic field. Except for losses due to scattering or dispersion, the particles in a synchrotron beam keep orbiting as long as proper control and energy input are maintained. |
T |
TGM: Toroidal Grating Monochromator |
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Transcriptome: A complete set of messenger RNA for a cell or population of cells. Because it is an active counterpart of DNA, mRNA depicts what a cell is doing at a given point in time. |
U |
UHV: Ultrahigh Vacuum |
V |
VUV: Vacuum Ultraviolet |
X |
XRL: X-ray Lithography |
