Nano is Everywhere, but What's Next?

Nano is Everywhere, but What's Next?
Electronics Engineering Trends in 2006 Series
Bob Burns
Agilent Technologies

Today, it seems like nanotechnology is everywhere—from the everyday to the esoteric. Pick up a newspaper, magazine, business publication, turn on the news or look at the web and a nano topic is likely to be front and center. Nanofabrics, nanotubes and nanobiotechnology have all found their way into our daily awareness.

Rarely has a new area of science or technology garnered so much interest, leading both governments and industry worldwide to make generous investments in nanotechnology research and development. If we can see, move, and measure at the molecular and atomic levels, we come much closer to understanding how systems work. This fundamental understanding will give us the ability to change them in ways that may improve safety, security, health and many other things we are not yet able to imagine. Today's scientists see real world breakthroughs for semiconductors, aerospace, tires, fabrics, and medicine just around the corner.

Yet, with all the interest in nanotechnology and many discoveries already made, it's still a somewhat "wild and wooly" nano-world. In the past, as new frontiers were explored, they were measured and mapped so that others could follow the trail, verify the route and lead still more on to build and develop the "New World". In the nano world, one of the biggest challenges is "What do we use to draw the map?" What will it take to move nanotechnology from a headline and make the work of the pioneers accessible to those who will develop the applications of the future?

The availability of tools and specifications for nano measurements is at the crossroads of the widespread adoption of nanotechnology solutions. At the sub-molecular level, there is no difference between samples from the many disciplines working at the nano level so a common set of measurement tools shared between the sciences is not only possible, it is necessary. Necessary because there is a convergence of disciplines occurring within, or perhaps because of, nanotechnology. Biologists are looking at the physical properties of cells in ways not thought of 10 years ago. Material researchers are looking at the electrochemical properties and conductivity of materials in ways once the domains of chemists and physicists. And, semiconductor engineers see nanotechnology as the future because they can only shrink silicon so far—the next step is to work at the molecular level. For electrical engineers, chemists, life scientists, materials researchers, and physicists alike, nano measurement tools, along with a set of industry standards that define nano measurement specifications, are needed so that users can perform repeatable measurements with predictable results.

Currently, some nano measurement tools are available. However, they are typically for specialty applications and require highly skilled users to operate them. Additionally, there are no set standards for nano measurement allowing for variations between similar instruments from different vendors thus making it difficult to define what an accurate result should look like. Scientists and engineers alike are moving ahead to explore the nanoworld hampered by the lack of a common set of tools. This poses challenges for those who want to use nanotechnology for both scientific and non-scientific applications such as drug discovery, quality control, or manufacturing. The common denominator for all of these is the need to obtain reliable and repeatable nano measurements.

Today, nanotechnology is central to the work many of Agilent Technologies' customers are engaged in and therefore, it is central to our business. Researchers in the nanotechnology field want to understand the chemical content, physical sizes and shapes, and electrical properties of new nanotech devices. These measurements require very precise, low-level measurements—an historic specialty of Agilent.

There is a growing portfolio of nano measurement tools that spans the needs for nano measurement from life sciences and chemistry to electronics. These include atomic force microscopes (AFMs), parametric testers, nanovoltmeters, chemical analyzers and microarrays.

Going forward, nano measurement tools need to be made simpler to use—re-engineered so that technicians, not just scientists, can use them. And, we need to innovate, creating new tools for as of yet unknown applications, all designed with an eye towards robustness, repeatability, and ease-of-use. Companies such as Agilent are well positioned to commercialize a broad portfolio of nano measurement solutions to meet the future demands for more specialized and more sophisticated instruments.

The promise of nanotechnology depends on accelerating the development of the state-of-the-art tools that will allow researchers, engineers and manufacturers to reliably measure their results. To meet the increasing market demand, a growing number of companies will introduce nano measurement tools in 2006. Agilent intends to lead the way, advancing the development of precise, high-quality nano measurement instrumentation and bringing to market a wide array of tools that will help characterize the nanotech devices of the future.

About the Author

Bob Burns is the Vice President and General Manager of Agilent Technologies' Nanotechnology Measurements Division.