Nanoelectronics from the bottom up (original) (raw)

A bird's-eye view of nanotechnology in 2003

IEEE Circuits & Devices, 2004

S ince 1959, when Richard Feynman first imagined the construction of things from atom assembly , nanotechnology research has been active [2]- with the hope of creating natural or artificial entities measuring less than 100 nm, which lie at the crossroads of electronics, biology, chemistry, physics, molecular manufacturing, materials engineering, biology and bioengineering ( ). Considerable efforts and money [5], are being directed towards the development of enabling technologies, such as the integration of down-and bottomup design and manufacturing technologies are used in integrated circuit (IC) fabrication, miniaturization by scaling of devices and lines in hard lithography, while bottom-up assembly technologies aim to create new materials through innovative atom and molecule assembly through molecular manufacturing techniques . This bottom-up, self-assembly aproach has two current interpretations: the self-assembly by self-replication akin to DNA-guided multiplication of cells in biological systems and the chemical self-assembly of molecules in an aqueous solution. Chemical selfassembly produces small molecules by arrangement of atoms through (random) bumping of molecules in the solution. This method produces small bio-polymers and crystals but does not scale up well to form larger molecules such as DNA, RNA, proteins, antigens and antibodies. This approach is based on the use and mechanization [58] of soft-lithography-or creation through biotechnology of new materials, miniaturization of instrumentation, better information technology, computer modeling and other enabling technologies. Ideally, these new materials and technologies should be used to improve the human condition in a variety of applications, such as better energy delivery methods, sustainable energy systems, eco-efficient materials [51] and specific drug design and delivery methods. For example, the low efficiency of solar cells is being studied at the molecular level to try to understand the mechanisms of quantum solar energy at work in solar cells that cause efficiency degradation over time to compensate for it . Biotechnology applications, such as medical implants of organic materials, cancer treatment by direct targeting of medicine (see ) that can navigate and detect the bad cells to destroy them, genetic therapies stemming from a better understanding of the human genome, and new organically synthesized bone materials are other promising areas of research and applications for nanotechnology. Other technologies include intelligent textiles, transgenically grown food free from disease, and other information technology, telecom, and transportation applications[7], as well as bio-sensors designed for defense purposes [50]. In a cross-disciplinary research effort, such as nanotechnology is useful to communicate the information and research efforts to form a conceptual mental map of the state-of-the-art R&D in nanotechnology today , .

Unbounding the future: The nanotechnology revolution

1991

Nanotechnology. The science is good, the engineering is feasible, the paths of approach are many, the consequences are revolutionary-times-revolutionary, and the schedule is: in our lifetimes. But what? No one knows but what. That's why a book like this is crucial before molecular engineering and the routine transformation of matter arrives. The technology will arrive piecemeal and prominently but the consequences will arrive at a larger scale and often invisibly. Perspective from within a bursting revolution is always a problem because the long view is obscured by compelling immediacies and the sudden traffic of people new to the subject, some seizing opportunity, some viewing with alarm. Both optimists and pessimists about new technologies are notorious for their tunnel vision. The temptation always is to focus on a single point of departure or a single feared or desired goal. Sample point of departure: What if we can make anything out of diamond? Sample feared/desired goal: What if molecular-scale medicine lets people live for centuries? We're not accustomed to asking, What would a world be like where many such things are occurring? Nor do we ask, What should such a world be like? The first word that comes to mind is careful. The second is carnival. Nanotechnology breakthroughs are likely to be self-accelerating and self-proliferating, much as information technology advances have been for the past several decades (and will continue to be, especially as nanotech kicks in). We could get a seething texture of constant innovation and surprise, with desired results and unexpected side-effects colliding in all directions. How do you have a careful carnival? Unbounding the Future spells out some of the answer. I've been watching the development of Eric Drexler's ideas since 1975, when he was an MIT undergraduate working on space technologies (space settlements, mass drivers, and solar sailing). Where I was watching from was the "back-to-basics" world of the Whole Earth Catalog publications, which I edited at the time. In that enclave of environmentalists and world-savers one of our dirty words was technofix. A technofix was deemed always bad because it was a shortcut-an overly focused directing of high tech at a problem with no concern for new and possibly worse problems that the solution might create. But some technofixes, we began to notice, had the property of changing human perspective in a healthy way. Personal computers empowered individuals and took away centralized control of communication technology. Space satellites-at first rejected by environmentalists-proved to be invaluable environmental surveillance tools, and their images of Earth from space became an engine of the ecology movement. I think nanotechnology also is a perspective shifter. It is a set of technologies so fundamental as to amount to a whole new domain of back to basics. We must rethink the uses of materials and tools in our lives and civilizations.

Nanoscience and nanotechnology: The bottom-up construction of molecular devices and machines

Pure and Applied Chemistry, 2000

The bottom-up approach to miniaturization, which starts from molecules to build up nanostructures, enables the extension of the macroscopic concepts of a device and a machine to molecular level. Molecular-level devices and machines operate via electronic and/or nuclear rearrangements and, like macroscopic devices and machines, need energy to operate and signals to communicate with the operator. Examples of molecular-level photonic wires, plug/socket systems, light-harvesting antennas, artificial muscles, molecular lifts, and lightpowered linear and rotary motors are illustrated. The extension of the concepts of a device and a machine to the molecular level is of interest not only for basic research, but also for the growth of nanoscience and the development of nanotechnology. and reasoning , or the sum of universal knowledge [13]. My own definition is the following: Science is a human activity aimed at knowing the laws of Nature and then using such knowledge to change the world. This definition reflects the fact that science operates and develops along two routes: discoveries and inventions. On one hand, science aims at discovering what already exists, but is still unknown; for example, how sunlight is converted into chemical energy by green plants (natural photosynthetic process). On the other hand, science aims at inventing what did not exist before; for example, the way in which water can be split into hydrogen and oxygen by sunlight (artificial photosynthesis). Science is the most powerful means that mankind has to understand the working principles of the material world, as well as to change the world. In the early times of science, most scientists were engaged in discovering Nature. As time progresses, scientists move more and more from discovering to inventing.

Little by Little. Expansions of Nanoscience and Emerging Technologies

(CNS-UCSB) collaborated to host the third annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Nanoscience and Emerging Technologies. S.NET, as it is known, is a young, international professional society created, in part, as a legacy of a Nanotechnology-in-Society Network instituted by the U.S. National Science Foundation. The meeting was hosted physically in Tempe, AZ by CNS-ASU and virtually by CNS-UCSB (http://www.cns. ucsb.edu/snet2011). It drew more than two hundred registrants from more than twenty countries. Scholars, students, and professionals participated in more than forty-five panels and other activities, such as walking tours of Tempe and Phoenix, short theatrical performances, a poster session with videos and tabletop demonstrations, and student-organized social activities. The conference provided ample evidence of a flourishing international community of scholars dedicated to describing, theorizing, and debating the societal aspects of new and emerging technologies-including not only nanotechnology, but also synthetic biology, geoengineering, DIY manufacturing, and more. This volume is the third in a series of edited volumes featuring selected material from the S.NET meetings. The editorial team reflects the hybrid interdisciplinarity and international composition of the young society, and also the encouraging investment in this new area of scholarship by a rising generations of emerging technology scholars. The chapters in this book capture a range of key discussions and issues raised by participants in S.NET 2011; additional collections anticipated in the journals Review of Policy Research, NanoEthics, and Nanotechnology Law and Business further extend the published record of the emerging debate on emergent techno-societal issues. While it is nice to see the scholarship presented at S.NET 2011 appearing in print, and gratifying to have this third edited volume to accompany the other two, it is truly inspiring to be able to continue to showcase new, high-quality research by scholars who are coalescing into a community.

Introduction:(re) imagining nanotechnology

Science as Culture, 2006

For its proponents nanotechnology offers so much-unlimited and clean energy, targeted pharmaceuticals, intelligent textiles and self-organizing molecular machines. Bottom-up or top-down, the promises of nanotechnology are revolutionary and other-worldly. Similarly reports in the popular press have begun to grapple with the complicated implications of a nano-enabled world and inevitable concerns about safety. In public policy, debate centres on how to regulate nano-products and nanoscience research whilst negotiating the complex practices of scientific innovation. These social, cultural, moral, political and economic visions of promise, threat and governance have shaped and are shapingin uneven and complicated ways-the research trajectories that will determine the eventual form of nanotechnologies. This special issue critically engages with the real-time social and political constitution of nanotechnology and together the papers contribute to an emerging analysis of the 'upstream' shaping of nanotechnology research agendas. The special issue calls for the formation of a reflexive social science of nanotechnology in which critical social science scholarship re-imagines what is at stake-politically, culturally and socially-in the development of nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology and Limits to Growth

2011

A new era of human collectivity is emerging. Born of desire, fear, sensibility, and ingenuity, it rides on the back of past struggles and our increasing capacity to share information across the globe. 1 The individualistic milieu that epitomized neoliberal structures of the previous four decades is beginning to change form. A common, underlying goal is progressively connecting us to one another: a desire to better the present as a means to secure viable futures on this planet.