Nano-technology in a nutshell Dept of Phys M. C. Chang
ENIAC circa 1947 Physical characteristics: Future prediction (Popular Mechanics, 1949): • 17, 468 vacuum tubes; 1, 500 relays • 1, 500 vacuum tubes; 10 kilowatts • 60, 000 pounds; 16, 200 cubic feet • 3, 000 pounds (~ size of an automobile) • 174 kilowatts (233 horsepower) • 5, 000 addition/sec. (~ same as Intel 4004) • 5. 25 MJoule/trajectory (~ fire an artillery shell)
The invention of transistor (1947, Bardeen, Brattain, Shockley) • small size • less electricity • no movable part • faster turn-on time 1956
The invention of IC (1959, Kilby and Noyce) Intel 40044(1971) Pentium 2250 transistors 4. 2 million transistors 2000
A silicon single crystal A silicon wafer
Moore’s law
Moore’s Second Law Cost of Fab $50 B $40 B 360 B $20 B $10 B $0 B 1992 1995 1998 2001 Year 2004 2007 2010
Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) • mems microphone (PC, cellular phone) • mems accelerometer (safety bag, Wii, PC, camera, air guitar…) • other mems sensors (pressure, heat …) • mems oscillator (replaces quartz) • optical mems (VSCEL, micro projector) • microfluid (printer…) • biomems • … Cheaper, better, smaller, response time, energy consumption … + systems-on-a-chip (SOC) = multi-functional, mass production … (lab-on-a-chip)
Motion sensor DLP micro-projector MEMS mirror
gene chip
Micro-fluid chip
Top-down approach
Bottom-up approach
Self-organized (or self-assembled) Pb. Se dots (on Pb. Eu. Te)
Buckminster Fuller Buckminsterfullerene 1996 Carbon nanotube as nanowire
STM (Scanning Tunneling Microscope) 1980, Binning and Rohrer 1986
Quantum corral made by 48 iron atoms (D. Eigler)
Nano-machine, molecular robot … etc
From sub-micron technology to nano-technology -- problems of this century Emergence of quantum effect Quantum wire Quantum dot Self-assembly device Need better grasp of the fundamental physics of materials How long can we keep enjoying the amazing progress? A powerful computer in turn helps us explore the mystery of nature (high-Tc superconductor, DNA-coding, protein folding, drug design, better airplane… etc)