Nano's impact

Maryland NanoCenter envisions nano impact in three domains - fundamental knowledge, products which are enhanced in an evolutionary fashion by nanotechnology, and products which are truly revolutionary in that they are intrinsically based on nanoscale components and their assembly into new kinds of systems.  The schematic figure below presents a view of how key elements of nano provide the foundation for such impact.

Nano is in many ways at the center of much today's research landscape.  Nanotechnology has been central to the evolution of information technology for some years already, with ultrathin (nanoscale) microstructures having critical dimensions of 100nm or below, as witnessed e.g. in the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, engaging not only dimensional challenges but also those of achieving materials functionalities and performance and of controlling dimensions and properties to satisfy the demands of manufacturing. Nano has also become pivotal in biotechnology: nanomedicine is cited a major initiative in the NIH's Nanomedicine Roadmap, and nano-bio constructs are envisioned as vehicles for novel applications as well. And an increasing emphasis is being placed on the translation of these traditionally technical areas to benefit in our understanding and improvement of human cognition and society.  Nano science and engineering represents a significant underpinning for all three - info, bio, and cogno.

It is useful to think of nanoscale science and technology in terms of the elements it addresses, which range from atomic or nanoscale characteristics of surfaces, interfaces and materials, to artificial nanoparticles, or alternatively to nature's nanoparticles, namely biomolecules.  In turn, these particles and structures are the building blocks for various kinds of systems, e.g. cells constructed of biomolecules and polymeric materials, or devices and sensors assembled from nanoscale particles and structures.

These nanoscale elements in turn represent the foundations for enabling technologies.  They provide an avenue for synthesizing nanomaterials, fabricating nanostructures, and assembling components.  They also represent the basis for nanomanufacturing, either by extending techniques well into the nano domain or by creating new approaches to building nano-based systems.  And the nanoscale elements create the underpinning for new nanoprobe technologies capable of characterizing and modifying nanostsructures, essentially nanoprobes which function as both nanosensor and nanoactuator systems.

What can we therefore expect from these enabling technologies?  First, we anticipate products which exploit nano in an evolutionary way, incorporating new features, controls, and dimensions into existing technologies.  Examples range from cutting-edge nanoelectronics based on conventional semiconductor materials to the incorporation of nanoengineered materials into electronic devices or consumer products.  Second, we can envision revolutionary products which depend explicitly on nanotechnology, and would not be possible otherwise.  Examples may include new kinds of bio- and chem-bio sensor systems, nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery, and microsystems which constitute tiny laboratories or factories on a chip, requiring new strategies for manufacturing.    Nanoprobe technologies, including many derivatives of the scanning tunneling microscope, will support both evolutionary and revolutionary products.  Finally, nano is surely stimulating rapid and profound advance in our fundamental understanding of materials, processes, biology, chemistry and physics by providing a rich portfolio of experimental tools for research, a suite of super-microscopes and microprobes that let us look at physical and biological systems on the length scale at which nature built them - the nano scale.