Under Development

Nanotechnology—the next frontier

Though still at a nascent stage, nanotechnology promises to aid in the creation of innovative products in many industries, observes Abhinav Singh.

A group of scientists at Cornell University in the US created a tiny guitar the size of a human red blood cell. They made it by sculpting a guitar shape out of silicon crystal, the material used in computer chips. They made the nanoguitar not to actually play it (though one can hear noises from it), but to show what sort of thing can be built in a size that small. Also, they wanted to show how these miniatures behave. Scientists now expect to see microscopic parts being designed for mobile phones to make them smaller and lighter, with less power consumption. These are some examples where nanotechnology has applications. It can also be used in medical devices to help detect chemicals and viruses.

Research in full force

Nanotechnology involves the manipulation of matter at nanometer lengths (one billionth of a meter) to produce new materials, structures and devices. People like chemists, biologists, physicists and engineers are studying things that are so tiny you need special microscopes to see them. Some researchers are working on nanoscale devices that may lead to the formation of ‘plastic’ circuit elements and circuit ‘sheets’ fabricated with inkjet printers within three years. It’s estimated that every year about $4 billion is being invested worldwide in nanotechnology research by governments and major corporations. These investments are expected to result in the creation of a rich body of nanotechnology, much of which will be commercialised within the next ten years. Nanotechnology can transform virtually every industrial sector. Market sources say that more than 200 nanoscience and nanotech patents and patent applications have been filed in the field globally.

Some research centres, including HP Labs at Palo Alto in the US, are carrying out intensive research in this area. Dr Stanley Williams is leading research efforts in this field. Williams and his team have demonstrated the first electronically switchable molecule. They have outlined further advances in the field, including one of the world’s densest electronically addressable memories combining logic and memory on the same device, and using nano-imprint lithography to fabricate it.

In 2001, Williams and his colleagues won the patents that are needed to create nanoscale devices. One of them showed how extremely complex logic chips could actually be made inexpensively in a simple manner. The other proposed a solution to the problem of connecting the tiny devices to today’s much larger integrated circuits so that information could be put in and accessed. In 2002, the group received a patent that helped consolidate its entire research portfolio to date, outlining the effort to create complete molecular electronics technology.

Huge potential payoff

Since research in nanotechnology involves huge investments, it is taking place at a slow pace in India A M Sudhakara Systems Engineer University Computer Centre University of Mysore

It is being hoped that complex nanoelectronic devices (computer memory, displays, solar cells or passive drug delivery and diagnostics), as well as improved implantable medical devices, will hit the market in the near future. Long-term product payoffs could come from new products in sectors that do not yet exist such as nanomedicine, nanotherapeutics, nano-designed artificial chromosomes or quantum computers used in the design of molecules. Countries such as the US, Japan and Taiwan are racing to produce nanomaterials that can be applied to electronics, optics, medical devices and other industries. For instance, nanoelectronic components will be able to form nanocomputers with far greater data access speeds and storage density than what is possible with the current micro-processing techniques. Switchable nanostructures can be incorporated into nanoprocesssors, random access memory and data storage media.

In a similar manner, the use of nanotechnology in medicine will help in the diagnosis and treatment of illness and injury, and enhancement of human health and functioning. Nanopharmacology systems may diagnose conditions, detect pathogens and identify optimal pharmaceutical agents to treat a medical condition. They could fuel high-yield production of matched pharmaceuticals (potentially in vivo); locate, attach or enter target cells, structures or pathogens; and dispense the optimal amount of matched pharmaceuticals to target areas. This may allow selective killing of cancer cells or viruses—that currently resist medical treatment—with minimal systemic drug concentration and side effects. A nanomachine, which is an electro-mechanical device that functions on a scale of nanometers, may perform computations. It could perhaps sense and respond to environmental stimuli and be capable of movement; communicate and co-operate; perform molecular assembly; self-repair; and finally replicate itself in the near future.

Forecasts A M Sudhakara, Systems Engineer at the University Computer Centre, University of Mysore, “Nanotechnology is still at an under-development stage, but we expect devices like nano-robots, which when injected into human beings will, among other things, find blood blockages and rectify them. Nano gel is yet another application which can be applied on burn injuries; it will not allow any germs to sit on it and will help in healing injuries very quickly. Nanocomputing will enable the size of a chip to be reduced substantially and will make access to the computer very fast with less heat.”

Early days in India

Research activities in the field of nanotechnology in the country are yet to catch up with similar efforts in western countries, or even some Asian countries such as Japan and China. Sudhakara elaborates, “An initiative has been taken by some IITs, but since research in nanotechnology involves huge investments, it is taking place at a slow pace in India. Our research institutes need to realise that a lot of patents will be filed by researchers in the west, which in turn will be transformed into products—and will one day mean a lot of money flowing into those countries. India must therefore leverage the benefits of this technology.”

All said and done, nanotechnology is too hard to be resisted by researchers, and with so many potential benefits it is all set to change the way we live.

abhinav@expresscomputeronline.com