Nanotechnology Advances

Nanotechnology and nanoscience got a boost in the early 1980s with two major developments: the birth of cluster science and the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM). This development led to the discovery of fullerenes in 1985 and the structural assignment of carbon nanotubes a few years later. In another development, the synthesis and properties of semiconductor nanocrystals were studied. This led to a fast increasing number of semiconductor nanoparticles of quantum dots.

In the early 1990s Huffman and Kraetschmer (U. Arizona) discovered how to synthesize and purify large quantities of fullerenes. This opened the door to their characterization and functionalization by hundreds of investigators in government and industrial laboraories. Shortly after, rubidium doped C60 was found to be a mid temperature (Tc = 32 K) superconductor. At a meeting of the Materials Research Society meeting in 1992, Dr. T. Ebbesen (NEC) described to a spellbound audience his discovery and characterization od carbon nanotubes. This event sent those in attendance and others downwind of his presentation into their laboratories to reproduce and push those discoveries forward. Using the same or similar tools as those used by Huffman and Kratschmere, hundreds of researchers further developed the field of nanotube-based nanotechnology.

At present in 2007 the practice of nanotechnology embraces both stochastic approaches (in which, for example, supramolecular chemistry creates waterproof pants) and deterministic approaches wherein single molecules (created by stochastic chemistry) are manipulated on substrate surfaces (created by stochastic deposition methods) by deterministic methods comprising nudging them with STM or AFM probes and causing simple binding or cleavage reactions to occur. The dream of a complex, deterministic molecular nanotechnology remains elusive. Since the mid 1990s, thousands of surface scientists and thin film technocrats have latched on to the nanotechnology bandwagon and redefined their disciplines as nanotechnology. This has caused much confusion in the field and has spawned thousands of "nano"-papers on the peer reviewed literature. Most of these reports are extensions of the more ordinary research done in the parent fields.

For the future, some means has to be found for MNT design evolution at the nanoscale which mimics the process of biological evolution at the molecular scale. Biological evolution proceeds by random variation in ensemble averages of organisms combined with culling of the less-successful variants and reproduction of the more-successful variants, and macroscale engineering design also proceeds by a process of design evolution from simplicity to complexity as set forth somewhat satirically by John Gall: "A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. . . . A complex system designed from scratch never works and can not be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a system that works." [2] A breakthrough in MNT is needed which proceeds from the simple atomic ensembles which can be built with, e.g., an STM to complex MNT systems via a process of design evolution. A handicap in this process is the difficulty of seeing and manipulation at the nanoscale compared to the macroscale which makes deterministic selection of successful trials difficult; in contrast biological evolution proceeds via action of what Richard Dawkins has called the "blind watchmaker" [3] comprising random molecular variation and deterministic reproduction/extinction.

Nanotech Review

Nanotechnology refers broadly to a field of applied science and technology whose unifying theme is the control of matter on the molecular level in scales smaller than 1 micrometre, normally 1 to 100 nanometers, and the fabrication of devices within that size range.

It is a highly multidisciplinary field, drawing from fields such as applied physics, materials science, colloidal science, device physics, supramolecular chemistry, and even mechanical and electrical engineering. Much speculation exists as to what new science and technology may result from these lines of research. Nanotechnology can be seen as an extension of existing sciences into the nanoscale, or as a recasting of existing sciences using a newer, more modern term.

Two main approaches are used in nanotechnology. In the "bottom-up" approach, materials and devices are built from molecular components which assemble themselves chemically by principles of molecular recognition. In the "top-down" approach, nano-objects are constructed from larger entities without atomic-level control. The impetus for nanotechnology comes from a renewed interest in colloidal science, coupled with a new generation of analytical tools such as the atomic force microscope (AFM), and the scanning tunneling microscope (STM). Combined with refined processes such as electron beam lithography and molecular beam epitaxy, these instruments allow the deliberate manipulation of nanostructures, and led to the observation of novel phenomena.

Examples of nanotechnology in modern use are the manufacture of polymers based on molecular structure, and the design of computer chip layouts based on surface science. Despite the great promise of numerous nanotechnologies such as quantum dots and nanotubes, real commercial applications have mainly used the advantages of colloidal nanoparticles in bulk form, such as suntan lotion, cosmetics, protective coatings, and stain resistant clothing.

The first use of the distinguishing concepts in 'nanotechnology' (but predating use of that name) was in "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom," a talk given by physicist Richard Feynman at an American Physical Society meeting at Caltech on December 29, 1959. Feynman described a process by which the ability to manipulate individual atoms and molecules might be developed, using one set of precise tools to build and operate another proportionally smaller set, so on down to the needed scale. In the course of this, he noted, scaling issues would arise from the changing magnitude of various physical phenomena: gravity would become less important, surface tension and Van der Waals attraction would become more important, etc. This basic idea appears feasible, and exponential assembly enhances it with parallelism to produce a useful quantity of end products.

The term "nanotechnology" was defined by Tokyo Science University Professor Norio Taniguchi in a 1974 paper (N. Taniguchi, "On the Basic Concept of 'Nano-Technology'," Proc. Intl. Conf. Prod. Eng. Tokyo, Part II, Japan Society of Precision Engineering, 1974.) as follows: "'Nano-technology' mainly consists of the processing of, separation, consolidation, and deformation of materials by one atom or by one molecule." In the 1980s the basic idea of this definition was explored in much more depth by Dr. K. Eric Drexler, who promoted the technological significance of nano-scale phenomena and devices through speeches and the books Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology (1986) and Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation, (1998, ISBN 0-471-57518-6), and so the term acquired its current sense.

Nanotechnology and nanoscience got started in the early 1980s with two major developments; the birth of cluster science and the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM). This development led to the discovery of fullerenes in 1986 and carbon nanotubes a few years later. In another development, the synthesis and properties of semiconductor nanocrystals was studied. This led to a fast increasing number of metal oxide nanoparticles of quantum dots. The atomic force microscope was invented five years after the STM was invented. The AFM uses atomic force to see the atoms.

Nanotechnology

Introduction

Manufactured products are made from atoms. The properties of those products depend on how those atoms are arranged. If we rearrange the atoms in coal we can make diamond. If we rearrange the atoms in sand (and add a few other trace elements) we can make computer chips. If we rearrange the atoms in dirt, water and air we can make potatoes.

Todays manufacturing methods are very crude at the molecular level. Casting, grinding, milling and even lithography move atoms in great thundering statistical herds. It's like trying to make things out of LEGO blocks with boxing gloves on your hands. Yes, you can push the LEGO blocks into great heaps and pile them up, but you can't really snap them together the way you'd like.

In the future, nanotechnology will let us take off the boxing gloves. We'll be able to snap together the fundamental building blocks of nature easily, inexpensively and in most of the ways permitted by the laws of physics. This will be essential if we are to continue the revolution in computer hardware beyond about the next decade, and will also let us fabricate an entire new generation of products that are cleaner, stronger, lighter, and more precise.

It's worth pointing out that the word "nanotechnology" has become very popular and is used to describe many types of research where the characteristic dimensions are less than about 1,000 nanometers. For example, continued improvements in lithography have resulted in line widths that are less than one micron: this work is often called "nanotechnology." Sub-micron lithography is clearly very valuable (ask anyone who uses a computer!) but it is equally clear that conventional lithography will not let us build semiconductor devices in which individual dopant atoms are located at specific lattice sites. Many of the exponentially improving trends in computer hardware capability have remained steady for the last 50 years. There is fairly widespread belief that these trends are likely to continue for at least another several years, but then conventional lithography starts to reach its limits.

If we are to continue these trends we will have to develop a new manufacturing technology which will let us inexpensively build computer systems with mole quantities of logic elements that are molecular in both size and precision and are interconnected in complex and highly idiosyncratic patterns. Nanotechnology will let us do this.

When it's unclear from the context whether we're using the specific definition of "nanotechnology" (given here) or the broader and more inclusive definition (often used in the literature), we'll use the terms "molecular nanotechnology" or "molecular manufacturing."

Humans have unwittingly employed nanotechnology for thousands of years, for example in making steel and in vulcanizing rubber. Both of these processes rely on the properties of stochastically-formed atomic ensembles mere nanometers in size, and are distinguished from chemistry in that they don't rely on the properties of individual molecules. But the development of the body of concepts now subsumed under the term nanotechnology has been slower.

The first mention of some of the distinguishing concepts in nanotechnology (but predating use of that name) was in 1867 by James Clerk Maxwell when he proposed as a thought experiment a tiny entity known as Maxwell's Demon able to handle individual molecules.

In the 1920s, Irving Langmuir and Katharine B. Blodgett introduced the concept of a monolayer, a layer of material one molecule thick. Langmuir won a Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work.

Toshiba Qosmio

The Toshiba Qosmio G40 was one of the first Santa Rosa-based notebooks by the Japanese maker. Unlike the Satellite, Tecra and Portege series, the Qosmio range focuses on delivering a complete mobile entertainment platform with features like integrated TV tuner, next-generation optical format, 5.1-channel audio output, etc. The downside is that in order to fit in all these components, the 4.8kg, 17-inch Qosmio G40 can hardly be deemed portable. Unlike Sony's AR series, this Qosmio went with the HD-DVD format, an important consideration if you already have a collection of Blu-ray discs. The Toshiba G40 may be exceptionally costly--easily surpassing the S$5,000 (US$3,181.64) price point--and there are other cheaper entertainment models like the Dell Inspiron 1720 and HP Pavilion dv9500. But, to be fair, the latter models are certainly not as feature-rich. The equally capable Blu-ray-equipped Sony VAIO VGN-AR38GP is even more costly at S$6,999 (US$4,452.67), and the Fujitsu LifeBook N6420 sans HD-DVD drive runs up a S$5,888 (US$3,746.82) bill.

Microsoft Cost

Microsoft has released details of a study it commissioned that found that total cost of ownership for Windows Vista on mobile PCs is Rs 24,805 less annually than Windows XP.

According to research conducted by Wipro and GCR Custom Research, total cost of ownership for Windows XP is Rs 180,687 annually, while Vista's cost is Rs 155,882. The Rs 180,687 figure was derived from costs of hardware, software, IT labor, and user costs. Mobile PCs were the focus because these units will outship desktop systems by 2010, said Hiroshi Sakakibara, product manager for Windows Product Management at Microsoft.

Peculiarly, the study actually was based on XP usage and extrapolations based on Vista capabilities because there was not a substantial base of Vista clients in use yet when the study was done early in 2007. Now, the installed base of Vista is 60 million PCs, Microsoft said.

GCR and Wipro calculated that the Vista upgrade itself saves Rs 10,291 per year. These benefits include enhancements in security, desktop engineering, service desk requirements, user labor, and hardware and software benefits. Among the improvements noted were in such areas as network diagnostics, backup and restore, self-healing functions, and implementation of security policies.

Deploying best practices through Microsoft's Infrastructure Optimization model adds another Rs 9,676 in Vista savings, while utilizing the MDOP (Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack) saves Rs 4,838 per PC. MDOP features Microsoft SoftGrid Application Virtualization and the Microsoft Asset Inventory Service, while Infrastructure Optimization covers best practices, such as controlling PC configurations. MDOP is available as part of Microsoft's Software Assurance licensing program.

Reducing vulnerabilities and utilizing security policies presents savings, noted Bill Barna, principal consultant at Wipro. Security savings alone were estimated at Rs 2,255. "If you can reduce the number of core vulnerabilities, you can basically have the savings flow throughout the entire security model," Barna said.

The survey featured 541 phones calls to users at 131 XP user organizations; one IT decision-maker and three end-users were polled at each user site.

While Microsoft is promoting Vista upgrades, a Free Software Foundation project called "BadVista," is pushing free software as an alternative.

"We describe it as a campaign definitely against Vista but chiefly to promote free software over Vista," said John Sullivan, a campaign manager at the foundation.

Users should replace "proprietary" systems with a free system like GNU-Linux, Sullivan said.

Broaden Media Center

Microsoft is hoping that a line of new products from third-party vendors will help push its Windows Media Center platform during the holiday season. The company touted upcoming set-top boxes from companies such as Linksys, D-Link and Niveus Media labelled Extenders for Windows Media Center. The devices will allow for streaming of media content to TV sets from Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate PCs. "The new Extenders for Windows Media Center make it easy to get a wide range of personal and internet content not only on the main TV but on all the TVs in the house," said David Alles, general manager of Microsoft's eHome programme. Media Center Edition users can currently link their PCs to a TV only via the Xbox 360 gaming console. Microsoft claimed that the new devices will improve on the Xbox's Extender capabilities by running quietly and supplying a higher quality picture, as well as supporting DivX and Xvid formats. Microsoft also hopes to partner with manufacturers to buil the Extender platform into DVD players and TV sets. Originally positioned as an operating system for entertainment centre PCs, Microsoft hopes that the new devices will also allow Windows Media Center to function as a link between the TV and PC, rather than a replacement for both devices. Other vendors have rolled out similar products with mixed results. Apple launched the AppleTV earlier this year offering wireless connections to PCs running iTunes. The device has yet to take off as Apple has focused its attention on other products, such as the iPhone and a range of new iPod media players.

Gadget Printer

The idea of printing a light bulb may seem bizarre, but US engineers are now developing an ink-jet printing technology to do just that. The research at the University of California in Berkeley will allow fully assembled electric and electronic gadgets to be printed in one go.

The idea was revealed at a December workshop on robotic algorithms in Nice. Instead of creating a casing and then laboriously filling it with electronic circuit boards, components and switches, the plan is to print a complete and fully assembled device.

The trick is to print layer upon layer of conducting and semiconducting polymers in such a way that the circuitry the device requires is built up as part of the bodywork.

When the technique is perfected, devices such as light bulbs, radios, remote controls, mobile phones and toys will be spat out as individual fully functional systems without expensive and labour-intensive production on an assembly line.

Three-dimensional printers are already valuable tools for making prototypes of newly designed products. They deposit layers made from droplets of smart polymers, which gradually build up into 3D shapes. Such printing techniques have become so sophisticated it is now possible to print working prototypes with mechanical parts that move as they would in the final product.

But Berkeley's crucial addition to this art is to allow the electronics to be included in the printed device, rather than being added at great cost later on.

Flexonics

This merging of flexible materials with electronics has been dubbed "flexonics" and could do away with the conventional printed circuit board. These are normally multilayered flat plastic plates on which electronic components are soldered. Copper strips running between the layers connect the components.

But flexonics makes this unnecessary. It is this ability to embed the electronics in the device that has the potential to revolutionise industrial design. Rather than a casing housing the circuitry, the casing is the circuitry.

But there is a downside. When a flexonic device breaks, it will be irreparable, because none of the embedded components can be replaced. So the technology will fuel the throwaway society.

Flexonics faces considerable challenges. Polymer-based electronic devices may be cheaper to make than silicon, but their performance is considerably poorer. Polymer transistors, for example, still have switching speeds 100 times slower than silicon transistors.

But Jordan Pollack at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, who is interested in using 3D printing to make robots, says speed is not everything. The appeal of being able to print electronic devices means the new technology will inevitably find its niche. "Ultimately such 'Santa Claus' machines will begin to eat into lower-performance circuitry, like light bulbs, toys and transistor radios," he predicts.

Electroactive Polymers

Already, the Berkeley team has worked out how to print electronic components such as transistors, capacitors, inductive coils and other semiconductor components. These may be connected to form complete circuits for actuation and control, says John Canny, who heads the team.

Once they have developed ink-jet cartridges that can handle all the polymers needed for casing and circuit printing, Canny predicts they could make, say, a remote control for a TV.

Printed as a single continuous component, it would contain the buttons, a polymer-based infrared emitter and polymer-based electronics. Everything, in fact, except the batteries. They could use transparent polymers and plastic light emitters to print light bulbs.

By printing with electroactive polymers, which produce voltages across them when compressed, or bunch up tight when a voltage is applied to them, the printed devices can be made to respond to pressure or flex in certain directions. So buttons can be created that produce voltages, for example, or artificial muscles for robots that flex when a voltage is applied.