Nanotechnology

[Timmyotool]

how long do you think it will take for the scientists to make a stucture that is non microscopic?

[swansont]

how long do you think it will take for the scientists to make a stucture that is non microscopic?

 

Using nanotechnology? They've been doing it for years. That processor in your computer was made using nanotechnology, and it's macroscopic.

 

Perhaps you should be specific in what particular nanotechnology you have in mind. It's a pretty wide-encompassing term.

[slickinfinit]

yea nano technology is a reality it is just un its early stages and only few applications but it is booming and will change our lives I almost guarante.

[Daymare17]

What's the definition of nanotechnology anyway? Do you have a certain size, and if you go past this size, then it's a nanomachine?

[mak10]

what qualifications must you possess (like a BSc or MSc) to be called a nanotek expert or something?

 

-mak10

[Skye]

'Expert' is an informal term, so there aren't qualifications for it.

[cyeokpeng]

Though I am still studying electrical engineering, I still have not learnt how engineers go about lining up all the minute components of the chip in nano-scale? Anyone can enlighten me on that?

 

Anyway, in nano-scale, there are many contacts made, such as metallic-semiconductor contacts, semiconductor-dielectric contacts etc. Sometimes, I wonder since they are fabricated in nanoscale, how come the minute distance between them do not cause dielectric breakdown, and causes streaks of discharge across the chips?

[swansont]

Though I am still studying electrical engineering' date=' I still have not learnt how engineers go about lining up all the minute components of the chip in nano-scale? Anyone can enlighten me on that?

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The work I did used an electron beam writer to expose a masking sheet (called a resist) of gold-coated PMMA (Polymethylmethacrylate) and the exposed areas were removed chemically - the exposure broke the polymer chain and made it susceptible to the chemicals.

 

Then the underlying material (silicon nitride, deposited on silicon by chemical vapor deposition) was etched with a reactive ion etch - the ions in a plasma were accelerated with an electric field to etch primarily in the direction of the field.

 

The silicon substrate was etched with KOH, which is interesting because it doesn't etch at the same rate in all directions.

 

There was also a step of using a photo-resist for a larger scale process. Similar idea as the electron beam etch - you expose the resist and wash it away. You can also get reisists where the exposed regions stay and the unexposed regions get washed away.

 

There are also processes where you deposit layers in intermediate steps.