Micro and Nanomanufacturing
May 27, 2010 by AboutNanoWires.com · Leave a Comment
Product Description
Nanofabrication and nanotechnology present a great challenge to engineers and researchers as they manipulate atoms and molecules to produce single artifacts and submicron components and systems.
Micro and Nanomanufacturing provides a comprehensive treatment of established micro and nanofabrication techniques and addresses the needs of practicing manufacturing engineers by applying established and research laboratory manufacturing techniques to a wide variety of materials.
Engineers seeking more knowledge of how nano and micro devices are designed and fabricated will learn about: Manufacturing and fabrication techniques at the micro and nanoscales; Using bulk and surface micromachining techniques, LiGA, and deep x-ray lithography to manufacture semiconductors; Producing master molds with micromachining; The deposition of thin films, pulsed water drop machining, and nanomachining.
Mark J. Jackson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology at Purdue University. His current research focuses on understanding the properties of materials in the field of micro scale metal cutting, micro and nano abrasive machining, and laser micro machining.
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Emerging Nanotechnologies for Manufacturing
May 2, 2010 by AboutNanoWires.com · Leave a Comment
Product Description
Nanotechnology is a technology on the verge of commercialization. In this important work, an unrivalled team of international experts provides an exploration of the emerging nanotechnologies that are poised to make the nano-revolution a reality in the manufacturing sector. From their different perspectives, the contributors explore how developments in nanotechnology are transforming areas as diverse as medicine, advanced materials, energy, electronics and agriculture.
Key topics covered include:
- Characterization of nanostructures
- Bionanotechnology
- Nanoelectronics
- Micro- and nanomachining
- Self-assembly techniques
- New applications of carbon nanotubes
- Environmental and health impacts
This book provides an important and in-depth guide to the applications and impact of nanotechnology to different manufacturing sectors. As such, it will find a broad readership, from R&D scientists and engineers to venture capitalists.
About the Authors
Waqar Ahmed is Chair of Nanotechnology & Advanced Manufacturing and the Director of the Institute of Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. He has contributed to the wider industrial adoption of surface coating solutions through fundamental research and modeling of gas phase processes in CVD and studies of tribological behavior.
Mark J. Jackson is a Professor at the Birck Nanotechnology Center and Center for Advanced Manufacturing, College of Technology at Purdue University. Dr Jackson is active in research work concerned with understanding the properties of materials in the field of microscale metal cutting, micro- and nanoabrasive machining, and laser micromachining. He is also involved in developing next generation manufacturing processes and biomedical engineering.
. Explains how to use biological pathways to produce nanoelectric devices
. Presents data on new, experimental designs
. Discusses the history of carbon nanotubes and how they are synthesized to fabricate novel nanostructures (incl. data on laser ablation)
. Extensive use of illustrations, tables, and figures throughout
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Nanowires key to future transistors, electronics
January 2, 2010 by AboutNanoWires.com · Leave a Comment
The researchers have learned how to create nanowires with layers of different materials that are sharply defined at the atomic level, which is a critical requirement for making efficient transistors out of the structures.
“Having sharply defined layers of materials enables you to improve and control the flow of electrons and to switch this flow on and off,” said Eric Stach, an associate professor of materials engineering at Purdue.
Electronic devices are often made of “heterostructures,” meaning they contain sharply defined layers of different semiconducting materials, such as silicon and germanium. Until now, however, researchers have been unable to produce nanowires with sharply defined silicon and germanium layers. Instead, this transition from one layer to the next has been too gradual for the devices to perform optimally as transistors.
The new findings point to a method for creating nanowire transistors.
The findings are detailed in a research paper appearing Friday (Nov. 27) in the journal Science. The paper was written by Purdue postdoctoral researcher Cheng-Yen Wen, Stach, IBM materials scientists Frances Ross, Jerry Tersoff and Mark Reuter at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y, and Suneel Kodambaka, an assistant professor at UCLA’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
Whereas conventional transistors are made on flat, horizontal pieces of silicon, the silicon nanowires are “grown” vertically. Because of this vertical structure, they have a smaller footprint, which could make it possible to fit more transistors on an integrated circuit, or chip, Stach said.
“But first we need to learn how to manufacture nanowires to exacting standards before industry can start using them to produce transistors,” he said.
Nanowires might enable engineers to solve a problem threatening to derail the electronics industry. New technologies will be needed for industry to maintain Moore’s law, an unofficial rule stating that the number of transistors on a computer chip doubles about every 18 months, resulting in rapid progress in computers and telecommunications. Doubling the number of devices that can fit on a computer chip translates into a similar increase in performance. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to continue shrinking electronic devices made of conventional silicon-based semiconductors.
“In something like five to, at most, 10 years, silicon transistor dimensions will have been scaled to their limit,” Stach said.
Transistors made of nanowires represent one potential way to continue the tradition of Moore’s law.
The researchers used an instrument called a transmission electron microscope to observe the nanowire formation. Tiny particles of a gold-aluminum alloy were first heated and melted inside a vacuum chamber, and then silicon gas was introduced into the chamber. As the melted gold-aluminum bead absorbed the silicon, it became “supersaturated” with silicon, causing the silicon to precipitate and form wires. Each growing wire was topped with a liquid bead of gold-aluminum so that the structure resembled a mushroom.
Then, the researchers reduced the temperature inside the chamber enough to cause the gold-aluminum cap to solidify, allowing germanium to be deposited onto the silicon precisely and making it possible to create a heterostructure of silicon and germanium.
The cycle could be repeated, switching the gases from germanium to silicon as desired to make specific types of heterostructures, Stach said.
Having a heterostructure makes it possible to create a germanium “gate” in each transistor, which enables devices to switch on and off.
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The work is based at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center and Purdue’s Birck Nanotechnology Center in the university’s Discovery Park and is funded by the National Science Foundation through the NSF’s Electronic and Photonic Materials Program in the Division of Materials Research.
Writer: Emil Venere, (765) 494-4709, venere@purdue.edu
Source: Eric Stach, (765) 494-1466, eastach@purdue.edu
Related Web site:
Eric Stach: https://engineering.purdue.edu/MSE/People/ptProfile?id=12299
PHOTO CAPTION:
Researchers are closer to using tiny devices called semiconducting nanowires to create a new generation of ultrasmall transistors and more powerful computer chips. The researchers have grown the nanowires with sharply defined layers of silicon and germanium, offering better transistor performance. As depicted in this illustration, tiny particles of a gold-aluminum alloy were alternately heated and cooled inside a vacuum chamber, and then silicon and germanium gases were alternately introduced. As the gold-aluminum bead absorbed the gases, it became “supersaturated” with silicon and germanium, causing them to precipitate and form wires. (Purdue University, Birck Nanotechnology Center/Seyet LLC)
A publication-quality image is available at http://news.uns.purdue.edu/images/+2009/stach-nanowires.jpg
Abstract on the research in this release is available at: http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2009b/091126Stachnanowires.html




