Let's not get nano-crazy
01/01/2005
As we move toward the nanoworld of tomorrow, the potential is enormous. While hype artists with wild imaginations have suggested powerful, invisible, self-reproducing machines that could run around fixing things inside our bodies or building complex structures molecule by molecule, the real impact will probably be much more subtle and far-reaching. We will learn how to harness nature’s own methods for self-assembly, and then apply these self-organizing principles to structure new types of devices, perhaps with metamaterials having unique properties. There are already stain-proof fabrics, brighter displays requiring less energy, and nanoslurries that can improve chemical mechanical planarization. Flash memories may soon require less power to hold more charge longer by using nanocrystals for the floating gate.
Nanotechnology involves a new approach to engineering, harnessing the physics and chemistry of the natural world rather than force-fitting our creations onto reluctant materials and structures, such as by using masks and etching.
Because of the tremendous promise, there are signs of a dot-com-like investment bubble already taking shape. Give Wall Street a hot buzzword (biotech, “telecosm,” dot-com) and it will suck up piles of investment capital while drilling a lot of dry holes. Before that happens, it’s important that all of us have a sense of how this future nanoworld is likely to unfold.
Harnessing nature requires detailed understanding of the underlying science, but that’s only the beginning. We must learn how to use our discoveries to create perfectly regular, reliable structures repeatably, using economical manufacturing processes. There have been experiments showing that devices such as switches, storage cells, and light emitters can be made from nanomaterials, but getting them to form themselves into regular arrays, or even to put them where they need to be within device configurations, is still beyond our capabilities in most cases. Connecting to nanostructures and getting signals in and out can also offer formidable barriers. While we may discover some fascinating scientific phenomena, we never may be able to turn them into useful, economically manufacturable devices.
All this will be painstaking work, often requiring new kinds of manipulating tools and metrology. It may take decades to reach the commercial stage, if ever. This suggests that initial nanotech applications will most likely be integrated into the kinds of structures we already know how to build. Far-out ideas will take much longer to evolve. Furthermore, things that are the most interesting technically may have little commercial potential. Only here and there from among many exciting discoveries will come such advances as brighter displays using less energy; smaller, faster memories storing spin rather than charge; much more efficient solar cells; and higher energy-density batteries for portable equipment.
Examples of all of these technology advances were discussed at a recent nanomaterials conference sponsored by Business Communications Co. of Norwalk, CT. Most of the new ideas will be commercialized by existing companies with strong, focused research programs. The BCC program included a visit to IBM’s nanotechnology lab in New York, and the painstaking work needed to make even modest advances was evident in the projects discussed there. Even startups with great potential may take years to get into the market with useful nanotech products, and by then bigger companies may have taken end runs around their patents.
There is little doubt that some day great riches will come to those who get nanotechnology right. But meanwhile, many of those hoping to get rich quick on anything “nano-” may discover a hole in their pocket.
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Robert Haavind,
Editorial Director