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Follow UsThere has always been an effort to pack more and more into less and less of space. And computing holds out some of the best examples of our successes in this. More data stored on less and less storage space, more processing power compressed into smaller and smaller processors, more and more power stored in smaller and smaller battery packs–the list is virtually endless.
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But, in many areas, we are coming up against the physical limits of miniaturization. For example, the circuitry in modern-day processors is only a few molecules apart. It may not be possible to shrink things much beyond this stage. If you want to go beyond this point, then you have to work at an atomic scale, that is build out of atoms.
Welcome to the world of nanotechnology!
How it works
Every structure is made up of molecules arranged in a certain pattern. Molecules, in turn, are made up of aligned atoms. Nanotechnology works by getting every atom in the right place to form any structure that can be specified in molecular detail. This can be done in two ways. One, by having molecular-scale positional devices (computer-controlled nano-robots) that can assemble macroscopic elements. Two, through self-replicating manufacturing systems that will be able to make copies of themselves to manufacture useful products.
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To build these nano machines, we need equipment that can manipulate material at the atomic level. Currently nano machines are created in labs using engraving, lithographic and etching equipment capable of working in the nano meter scale. These facilities are maintained as class ten clean rooms. Meaning, they will have not more than ten particles of size 0.5 microns or higher in size per cubic foot of space, and where people work in bunny suits made popular by Intel’s ads. In India, the Semiconductor Complex in Punjab is one facility that has a class 10 clean room. Researchers envision mass manufacture to happen through computers that can treat atoms like bits of information and manipulate them to form a shape. With programmed nanoscopic robot arms, these computers will be able to build things one atom or molecule at a time.
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In computing, carbon nanotubes have been the big news. Discovered in 1991, by Japanese electron microscopist Sumio Lijima at NEC, they have come a long way to get incorporated into processors. IBM has been a pioneer in this area by demonstrating a new process for fabricating carbon nanotubes into processors. Carbon nanotubes are one nanometer in diameter and have tremendous thermal and chemical stability. They can also carry extremely large current densities. They can be thought of as a sheet of graphite (a hexagonal lattice of carbon) rolled into a cylinder. As they are incredibly small, they can allow billions of transistors on a single chip, which gives the benefit of faster speeds for processing. (See page 84, PCQuest, August 2001 for details.)
Super dense storage using nanotechnology was recently achieved when IBM created a storage device that can store about 25 million textbook pages of information in a chip having the size equaling a postage stamp. The chip, codenamed Millipede, has more then 1000 heated spikes, which read tiny indentations to a polymer film. The indentations that are left on the polymer film measure 10 nanometers each and carry a digitized version of the data. Millipede chips are 20 times more densely packed than current hard drives. With such a technology, cellphones will be able to carry 10 GB of data. IBM plans to come to market with this technology by late 2005.
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Intel plans to enter the nanotechnology era with the release of 90 nanometer chips next year. In September, Intel announced that work is being done, along with Harvard University, on silicon nanowires and carbon nanotubes. These structures are made of self-assembling silicon and carbon atoms, respectively, and may replace standard transistors on chips. Intel plans to hit the market with this technology in 2010. By mid-decade, Intel plans to integrate radios into ordinary silicon chips thereby making wireless communication a free service.