Nanotechnology makes strides in quantum dots, medicine
In the emerging nanotechnology area, the typical eight- to 10-year gestation period for breakthrough technologies to reach commercialization is now reaching an end.
By Pallab Chatterjee, Contributing Technical Editor -- EDN, March 4, 2010
Nanotechnology is an emerging area with contributions from both established companies and start-ups. One participant in the industry, eight-year-old Nanosys Inc, is working on commercializing materials made with nanoparticles and nanotechnology devices. The company recently announced its QuantumRail lighting system for LG mobile-phone applications. This announcement represents the first major consumer-product application of the company’s quantum-dot-phosphor nanoscale-coating technology. You can apply the coating to LEDs to help clarify the color spectrum and reduce power consumption in backlit-LED applications. The technology enables mobile devices to display a truer color even in daylight. You can also use the technology in large LED arrays, such as those in LCD televisions. In those applications, the coating technology reduces power consumption, improves color and clarity, and screens the low-end “tail” light from the LEDs that causes some TV sets to interfere with IR (infrared) remote units on set-top-box or other audio/video equipment.
The Nanosys announcement heralds the arrival of nanotechnology products from other companies that will soon be entering the market and shows that the typical eight- to 10-year gestation period for breakthrough technologies to reach commercialization is now reaching an end. For example, nanomedicine is now emerging as a major topic of investigation. To help solidify the topics in this area and to determine the best direction for commercialization, the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) held the First Global Congress on NEMB (nanoengineering for medicine and biology), a three-day event that took place last month in Houston.
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Nanomedicine is an interesting field because a lot of the research and product development is coming from the traditional DSM (deep-submicron)-IC industry. Giving one of the plenary talks at the event was Mauro Ferrari, PhD, director of nanomedicine and deputy chairman of the department of biomedical engineering at the University of Texas Health Science Center. The NEMB event also showcased materials, characterization, modeling, circuit, and NEMS (nanoelectromechanical-system)-design presentations.
In materials development, nanotechnology parallels the strides researchers are making in subwavelength-electronics-semiconductor and semiconductor-process development. Presenters at the event discussed spin-coating techniques, carbon and magnetic nanotubes, and shadow-edge lithography for the creation of nanochannels. These nanochannel structures are finding use in molecular microfluidic applications and in waveguides for monolithic optical circuits. Researchers on the circuit side of nanomedicine are examining ultra-high-sensitivity traditional circuits in which the sense levels are molecular rather than macroscopic. Developers presented polysilicon-nanowire FET chemical sensors; piezoresistive cantilevers for explosive vapor, which has applications in security and health care; nonlinear-resonance NEMS and MEMS (microelectromechanical-system) biosensors; and wireless point-of-care patient-monitoring systems.
To supplement the circuit design, presenters discussed a new development in modeling and the need for a basic understanding of the nanoscale phenomenon. For example, they covered electron-transportation behavior in single-crystal silicon nanowires, the design of nanotip sensors, and modeling and simulation of the motion of bio-inspired swimming microrobots. Semiconductor-processing techniques and physics-based modeling for the optical and medical sectors are strong extensions of the traditional electronic-semiconductor business. The large growth and R&D in these sectors will be around for several decades. Silicon and carbon are still holding strong as the engineering materials of choice.
