New Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center Targets Development of Innovative Nanomanufacturing Technologies and Tools

NSF has awarded major support to establish the Center for Scalable and Integrated Nano-Manufacturing (SINAM), which will combine laboratory science and technology to develop ground-breaking, commercial-scale nanomanufacturing technologies. SINAM's research will focus on developing processes and tools for cost-effective nanomanufacturing. The techniques that SINAM proposes to use can manufacture items with dimensions smaller than 20 nanometers, which is less than one millionth of an inch. (The current industry standard is roughly 100 nanometers.) The nanomanufacturing technologies to be developed by SINAM promise to find applications in diverse industries, including computing, telecommunications, biomedicine, and homeland security.

SINAM is one of two new Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers (NSECs) established with NSF funding to address fundamental research barriers to commercial-scale nanomanufacturing. (See related article on the Center for Nano-Chemical-Electrical-Mechanical Manufacturing Systems (Nano-CEMMS) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.) The NSECs are interdisciplinary efforts, bringing together investigators from diverse fields (such as engineering, computer science, and physical science) in partnership with industry, government, and other institutions.

Located at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), SINAM involves five other partner institutions: the University of California-Berkeley, Stanford University, the University of California-San Diego; the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and HP labs.

Text Box: SINAM's approach to developing innovative nanomanufacturing technologies will integrate two parallel processes: one capable of creating essentially two-dimensional structures at a resolution of 1-10 nanometers (shown at right) and another for fabricating three-dimensional structures and devices at a much larger scale (current results shown at left, at a resolution of 100 nanometers). Credit: Y. Chen, X. Zhang, UCLA.

The nanomanufacturing approaches that SINAM will work to develop could have important applications in the manufacture of microprocessors for computer chips. Currently, the ability to fabricate smaller, faster microprocessors is limited by the size of the wavelengths of light used during lithography processes and extremely large facility costs. SINAM aims to offer affordable nanomanufacturing solutions by utilizing techniques that can reduce the wavelength of ultraviolet light from 364 nanometers to as little as few nanometers, the scale of x-ray wavelengths.

Another SINAM approach will be to develop three-dimensional nanomanufacturing technologies, which could increase the processing power of computer chips by creating greater surface area and more efficient interconnects than today's two-dimensional chips. SINAM will also pursue the development of nano-biosensors that would provide greater speed and accuracy in diagnosing disease as well as anti-terrorism applications.

Research teams at SINAM are working both to develop nanoscale components (such as the assembly motherboard shown at left) and to incorporate these nano-components in integrated devices and systems (shown at right) that can be cost-effectively manufactured. Credit: M. Heller, UCSD, Y. Chen, C.M. Ho, J. F. Stoddart, UCLA

Like other NSECs, SINAM will devote extensive efforts to building a skilled nanomanufacturing workforce, with special emphasis on recruitment of women and underrepresented minorities. To this end, SINAM will create an educational module, Discover Nanotechnology, for use in grades 7-12 and also hold a nanomanufacturing summer camp for undergraduates and pre-college teachers. A distinctive aspect of these efforts will be their emphasis on so-called Green Nanomanufacturing to attract the attention of teachers and students. Nanomanufacturing technologies could be environmentally superior to existing technologies by virtue of their reduced materials use, higher energy efficiency, and tighter industrial processes that produce less waste and pollution.

Cooperation with industrial partners is another SINAM priority. Almost a dozen companies have already joined the SINAM Industrial Consortium and international collaboration will involve academic and industrial nanotechnology groups in Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

For more information, contact SINAM director Prof. Xiang Zhang at zhangadm@ea.ucla.edu, (310) 206-7699.