| Atoms from Bits"Digital manufacturing is the 21st-century way to make products and it will render much of what we know about 20th-century industry obsolete. In digital manufacturing, products are made from a computerized description, much as a digital document is output from a computer printer. Digital manufacturing got its start in the 20th century with CNC machining and rapid prototyping technologies, but its ultimate reach is much, much farther. In coming decades we will find people ordering products on the Internet and having those products delivered to them via self-contained “personal factories” directly into their homes or offices. Digital manufacturing produces real physical products from digital information, or atoms from bits." (click here to view full article: Atoms from Bits, by Marshal Burns, Ph.D) |
What is nano Technology? "The prefix Nano in the words Nanofabrication and Nanotechnology comes from the word nanometer (nm) which is the term for one billionth of a meeter. Hence the words refer to making and using "things" which are in this nanometer size range. In its broadest usage, the term nanotechnology covers making structures in the range of 1 nm to 10,000 nm. These are truly small sizes as can be realized by nothing that something one nanometer in length is only about five atoms long. Nanofabrication and nanotechnology are engineering at the atomic length scale - a size range which until recently was only available to nature. Being able to engineer such small things opens the door to a multitude of new opportunities. These include making extremely fine diameter but incredibly strong fibers atom by atom, making extremely small probes that can look at individual strands of DNA for uses such as disease detection, and making man-made capillary systems to bring nutrients to man-made replacement organs." (click here to view this excellent website) |
| Powerful Products of Molecular Manufacturing"Even a primitive diamond-building nanofactory can create products vastly more powerful than today's versions. Electrical power can be converted to motion, and vice-versa, with 10 times the efficiency and about 108 (100,000,000) times more compactly. Computers can be 1012 times smaller and use 106 times less power. Materials can be about 100 times stronger. This means that most human-scale products would consist almost entirely of empty space, reducing weight, material requirements, and cost. Most of the rest of the product would be structural, easy to design. Even the simplest products could be software-controlled at no extra cost. Manufacturing of prototypes would be quite rapid—a few minutes to a few hours. Because manufacturing and prototyping are the same process, a successful prototype design could immediately be distributed for widespread use. A designer working with a few basic predesigned blocks could design, build, and test a simple product in less than a day. Products with complex interfaces to humans or to the environment—information appliances, automobiles, aerospace hardware, medical devices—would be limited by the time required to develop their software and test their functionality. However, in some fields the high time and money cost of manufacture slows other parts of the development cycle; this effect would disappear. An explosion of new, useful products could rapidly follow the widespread availability of a nanofactory." (click here to view full article: Powerful Products of Molecular Manufacturing) |
The Big World of Small"Think small. Really small. Got your old high school microscope? Not good enough. Your handy computer microchip? Still way too big. Think about building machines only a few molecules or atoms in size--that is one aspect of nanotechnology, a science of the future that is being created today. Nanotechnology is a term that encompasses scientific and engineering activities at the nanometer scale. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter, or only a few atoms long. Using an array of ultra-precise tools, scientists can create electric components and machines that are virtually invisible to the naked eye. Even genetic engineering and bioremediation, the use of microbes to eliminate hazardous wastes, fall under the broad definition of nanotechnology. This is not science fiction but science fact. Two years have passed since IBM scientists spelled out their company logo by moving 35 xenon atoms with a device called a scanning- tunneling microscope. Yet in that short time, nanotechnology has demonstrated the potential to become an important, pervasive technology. Today, for example, microsensors tinier than the width of a human hair are routinely being used in automobile anti-lock braking systems." By Christopher Stanard (click here for the complete article) |
From Nanotechnology to Digital Nanofabrication
Nanotechnology is most commonly used when researching technology involving dimensions of 1000 nanometers or less. It also refers to the construction and utilization of structures, systems and other devices that have special properties due to their small size; particularly referencing the ability to manipulate structures at the atomic level. All products are dependent upon the arrangement of atoms that make up the object. For example, as Dr. Ralph Merkle states, “If we rearrange the atoms in coal we can make diamond. If we rearrange the atoms in sand (and add a few other trace elements) we can make computer chips. If we rearrange the atoms in dirt, water and air we can make potatoes.”
Nanofabrication opens up new doors that can lead to perfection. It will be possible through nanofabrication, to build simple structures from scratch. (IBM has already written "IBM" on a metal plate, by placing single atoms in rows. Click here for more.) Furthering our knowledge of this subject will be essential if the industry is going to continue to develop hardware that will allow manufacturers (or consumers) to fabricate products that are “cleaner, stronger, lighter and more precise.”*
The next step beyond nanofabrication will be to incorporate this with digital processes. With further research, this will become the ultimate method of fabrication.
(*zyvex)
