22.1 WHAT IS NANOTECHNOLOGY?

In the history of industrial engineering, it is only in microelectronics that technology is characterized by size. The semiconductor industry over the last few decades has followed Moore s law. The projections extend to the year 2012, at which time the smallest component of a device would have a linear dimension of 50 nm. However, for years beyond 2006 and device features 100 nm or smaller, the roadmap is filled with the notation no known solution. The semiconductor roadmap ends just short of true nanostructure devices because the principles, fabrication methods, and way of integrating devices into systems are unknown. The transition from microelectronics to nanoelectronics results in changes in fundamental physics.

Nanotechnology is the second example of technology being characterized by size. How small is one nanometer? A typical width of a human hair is 50 ?m; one nanometer is 50,000th of a hair width. If a golf ball is 1 nm in size, the size of the earth would be approximately 1 ft.

Nanotechnology is the construction and utilization of functional structures designed from an atomic or molecular scale and with at least one characteristic dimension measured in nanometers. Such materials and systems can be rationally designed to exhibit novel and significantly improved physical, chemical, and biological properties, phenomena, and processes because of their size. When...