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Now that my Small Times stories have posted, some final thoughts from NSTI Nanotech |
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Jun 07, 2007 at 03:55 PM |
My two post-NSTI Nanotech news stories have been posted on Small Times' Website: If you haven't checked them out, click here and here to do so.
As I noted in the articles, the push toward nanomanufacturing has started to gain momentum, although challenges/obstacles abound. Keep in mind that I'm not talking about chipmaking and some of the other already-down-the-road-a-fair-piece nanoscale-production sectors, but more about the emerging markets and MEMS. Along those lines, here are a few last bits I'd like to share from NSTI.
One key area to watch is analysis/metrology/characterization/etc. and how it will be deployed to help ramp production processes. When I chatted with Ian Mowat of Evans Analytical Group, he put one challenge set in a nutshell: The new nano applications folks need to learn the following: how to assess their yields, how to trace back failures, and how to recognize failures (AKA killer defects) earlier on in the process.
In the NanoFab: Nanoscale Fabrication and Characterization panel, Brent Segal of Nantero poo-pooed the supposed relationship between MEMS and nano. He pointed out that etch is the key enabling process technology for MEMS, while lithography/patterning remains the sine qua non for chipmaking and nanoelectronics. He later said that standards for the materials set will be critical to help drive nanotech forward to the system level, "into the realm of the Intels and AMDs." After hearing Brent sit on two panels at NSTI and offer a nonstop stream of provocative, intelligent, opinonated, and at times hilarious comments, I'd like to nominate him for "Best in Show" in the panelist division.
Speaking of awards, UCSD's Mike Heller gets my nod for "Most Mind-Blowing Presentation," no small feat for a nanotech confererence. Mike was one of the cofounders of DNA microarray pioneers Nanogen, so he's already a bit of a legend in the nano community. Lately, he has been working on "electric-field directed self-assembly nanofabrication of higher order structures from biomolecular derivatized nanoparticles."
I admit that much of Heller's presentation was over my head, but I did glean enough to see that he and his team have made some real breakthroughs in pushing the self-assembly envelope. He spoke of "molecular Lego components," saying that they have self-assembled about a hundred nanolayers of materials, at about 40 nm per layer, that can be used for a variety of CMOS-like image-sensor arrays, fuel cells, etc. What he's doing is layer-by-layer (LBL) self-assembly, which he says is an indicator of "real nanofabrication coming of age." Apparently, the aforementioned electric field accelerates LBL self-assembly and helps make said assembly highly specific and tunable. He says they have placed some 10,000 electrodes on a CMOS chip, each individually addressed and controlled, using the process.
I haven't done Heller's work justice, so click here to go to his research group's site.
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