NANO TECHNOLOGY

CC: ME 433

Y.Jyothhi
(Assistant Professor)
yj_mech@vignanuniversity.org
1
UNIT 4: DOMAIN APPLICATION OF
NANO TECHNOLOGY ELECTRONICS
Unit-4: contents
• Domain Application of Nano Technology :
• Introduction
• Applications of Nano technology
• Environment and Energy
• Textiles
• Agriculture
• Electronics & Communication
• Computers
• Medicine
• Space technology
COURSE OBJECTIVE

• The student will be able to

• To elaborate the domain applications of nanotechnology

• To explore the applications of nanotechnology

• To impart knowledge on nanotechnology applications in environment and energy

• To impart knowledge on nanotechnology applications in Electronics & Communication

WHAT IS NANOELECTRONICS
Semiconductor electronics have seen a sustained exponential decrease in size and cost and a
similar increase in performance and level of integration over the last thirty years

Either economical or physical barriers will pose a huge challenge.

The search is on, therefore, for new properties, paradigms and architectures to create a novel
nanoclectronics.
ROADBLOCKS ALONG THE CURRENT ROAD OF
MINIATURIZATION

• Nano electronics thus needs to be understood as a general field of research.

• Aimed at developing an understanding of the phenomena characteristic of nanometer sized

objects with the aim of exploiting their for information processing purposes.
AIM OF NANOELECTRONICS
• The aim of Nanoelectronics is to process, transmit and store information by taking advantage
of properties of matter that are distinctly different from macroscopic properties.

• Microelectronics, even if the gate size of the transistor is 50 nm, is not an implementation of
nanoelectronics, as no new qualitative physical property related to reduction in size are being
exploited.

• Specifically, by electronics we mean the handling of complicated electrical waveforms for

• communicating information (as in cellular phones),

• probing (as in radar)
AIM OF NANOELECTRONICS

Concepts at the fundamental research level are being pursued world wide to find nanosolutions to
these three characteristic applications of electronics

One can group these concepts into three main categories:

• Molecular electronics

• Electronic effects (e.g., electrical conductance of C60) Synthesis (DNA computing as a buzz
word)

• Quantum Electronics, Spintronics (e.g., quantum dots, magnetic effects)

MAJOR PROBLEM

• The major problem right now is finding a way to make nanoelectronics feasible for consumer
electronics.

• Our modern equipment happens to he fairly robust:

• Cell phones can take a lot of damage before they break, and computers can work for several years
before problems arise.

• Micro electromechanical systems (mems)

COMMRCIAL APPLICATIONS OF
NANOTECHNOLOGY IN COMPUTING AND
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
• Nanotechnology has the potential for smaller and faster computers with larger memories
than current processes of making transistors and other components permit.

• These will reach their limits in miniaturization,creating the demand for new methods of
manufacturing, nanotechnology being one of them.

• Techniques such as soft lithography and bottom-up approaches to forming nanoscale

components by self-assembly could produce cheap and effective microscale circuits.
MOLECULAR ELECTRONICS AND
COMPONENTS

• Molecular electronics, with molecular switches and circuits only a few atoms wide,

• These offers the possibility of using molecular components in electronic devices, greatly
reducing their size,

• Although there are many practical issues to he addressed before this technique can be fully
developed.
CARBON NANOTUBES, SCANNING PROBE
MICROSCOPES (SPMS) AND ATOMIC FORCE
MICROSCOPES (AFMS) IN IT
• Carbon nanotubes are also likely to be used in IT.

• These tubes can be either conducting or semiconducting and have the potential for memory
and storage as well

• Other options for data storage include the use of SPMs as a tool for information transfer.

• This is exemplified by the IBM 'millipede' system, which employs an array of AFMs tips to make
indentations in a polymer and then read them.
CARBON NANOTUBES IN DISPLAY DEVICES

• Nanotechnology also has prospective applications for display devices, such as the
replacement of cathode ray tube (CRT) technology by electron-producing carbon nanotubes.
CURRENT RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

Current research activities include:

• Thin film Si photovoltaics

• SiGe in MOS technology

• Advanced CMOS technology

• Vertical MOS technology

• BiCMOS devices and technology

• SiGe(C) heterojunction bipolar transistors

ADVANCED NANOTECHNOLOGY MEMORIES
• Vertical RAM and Flash cells,
• Quantum bits,
• Stacked SRAMs,
• Nanowires,
• Molecular self-assembly,
• Thyristor RAM,
• MEMs, Spintronics,
• Single Electron Memories,
• Gain memories- S.ESO
• As we move into the era of nanotechnology memories new technologies are going to be
required.
• Some are already well along in development and are not be touched on such as the trend to
replacing the flash memory floating gate with nitride trapping site storage.
HOW TO MAKE NANOELECTRONICS DEVICES

• Nanoelectronics devices often are made by integrating dissimilar classes of semiconductors and
various other disparate materials into one heterogeneous single system. The two primary
modes of combining these materials.

1. mechanical bonding and

2. epitaxial growth processes

• Place stringent requirements on the ultimate scale of constituent materials of circuits.

MICRO ELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS (MEMS)

• Micro electromechanical Systems (MEMS) is a technology that combines computers with tiny
mechanical devices such as sensors, valves, gears, mirrors, and actuators embedded in
semiconductor chips.

• MEMS is also sometimes called smart matter.

• Micro Electromechanical Systems (MEMS) is the integration of mechanical elements, sensors,

actuators, and electronics on a common silicon substrate through m icrofabrication
technology.
MICRO ELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS (MEMS)
• MEMS are already used as accelerometers in automobile airbags.

• They've replaced a less reliable device at lower cost and show promise of being able to inflate a
bag not only on the basis of sensed deceleration

• but also on the basis of the size of the person they are protecting.

• Basically, a MEMS device contains micro-circuitary on a tiny silicon chip into which some
mechanical device

• Potentially, such chips can be built in large quantities at low cost, making them cost-effective for
many uses.
USES OF MEMS
• Global position system sensors that can be included with courier parcels for constant tracking
and sense parcel route Sensors.

• Built into the fabric of an airplane wing so that it can sense and react to air flow by changing the
wing surface resistance

• Optical switching devices that can switch light signals over different paths at 20-nanosecond
switching speeds
NEMS: NANOELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS
• NEMS or nanoelectromechanical systems are similar to MEMS (micro electromechanical
systems) but smaller.

• They hold promise to revolutionize abilities to measure small displacements and forces at a
molecular scale, and are related to nanotechnology.

• There are two scientific approaches to NEMS.

• The "top-down" approach is using a set of tools designed to build a smaller set of tools.
• The top-down approach consists of scaling down the existing micron-size MEMS technology far
into the sub 100 nrn range.
NEMS: NANOELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS
• The other approach is from the bottom up.

• In the bottom-up approach suspended structures of single-walled carbon nanotubes and of

(semiconducting) nanowires are fabricated.

• NEMS also can be thought of as "wet" when dealing with biology, or "dry" when dealing with
physical non-biological applications.

• The development of NEM-devices helps in using it as extremely sensitive sensors for force and
mass detection down to the single molecule level,

• as high-frequency resonators up to the Gliz range, or as ultra-fast, low-power switches.

NEMS: NANOELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS
• THE FUTURE OF NEMS

• MEMS and NEMS have gradually evolved from the research labs and are now found in various
technologies.

• Pressure sensors, accelerometers, ink-jet printer heads, and optical switches have all become
commercial products.

• Moreover, MEMS and NEMS have also become enabling technologies for BioNEMS.

• The convergence of biotechnology and Nanoelectromechanical Systems is projected to soon

develop a nano-biomotor.

• which will have the ability to navigate inside human blood vessels, checking for and treating
NEMS: NANOELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS
• LIMITATIONS
• At low temperature, quantum friction starts to limit the Q- factor and vibrating NEM-devices are
limited by zero- point motion.

• This quantum limitation poses an ultimate limit to sensitivity of NEM-devices.

• In addition, other quantum phenomena are expected to be present. Quantum optics-like

experiments with phonons.

• Phonon lasers or quantuni-tunneling experiments with massive objects).