Sensitive skin!

The news today is covering a great deal about the US developments at both Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley on artificial skin experiments, as published in the journal "Nature Materials". Such a skin could in future form the coving for robot limbs, whether for stand-alone robots or for prosthetics for humans that need replacement body parts. Robots with sensitive skin like this could literally feel the objects they manipulate, allowing them to work with more fragile items, for example.

Both approaches demonstrate yet another area which could be impacted by nano-scale technology in a few years time. Engineering pressure sensors into special conductive rubber materials at such a microscopic level is just one of a huge potential number of ways that nano-technology could enable. The two approaches use Thin Film Transistors (TFTs) which previously have been utilised in computer display technology.

At the moment this is lab-based experimentation but the teams working on it have also identified a fairly low cost method for industrialising the manufacture of such materials. In the future, artificial skin will not only look like real human skin, but also allow machines to sense the feel of the materials they come into contact with. Once such developments are brought together with other robotic advances, the total capability of robots as we understand them today will be revolutionised.

Polymer Chip Fabrication

As Moores Law continues to prevail, processor manufacturers are continuing to produce faster and faster chips, while basically using the same underlying fabrication science. I have covered before how new nano-science such as replacing copper connecting wires with carbon nanotubes on chips could bring further advantages. Researchers are also experimenting with other approaches not based on current lithography techniques. This would mean that instead of requiring a template like pattern to be used to etch silicon, so-called hitching posts can be established using sparse silicon, to which complex chains of molecules can attach themselves to. The chains are made of very precise copolymers which can form motifs acting as transistors for example. The process of manufacturing would then involve soaking plates in a liquid and letting polymerisation happen, rather than a lithographic process. The technique is still at an embryonic stage but I would expect simpler chips with very regular patterns such as memory chips would be possible first. The properties of the copolymers and the size of the plates would determine the capacity of such memory chips.

Nanotech Water Purification

One of the problems of some parts of the planet now, and which will be a problem for more of the planet in the future, is the availability of pure water to drink. While the underlying politics of recent wars can be linked to land occupation and control of oil reserves, it is likely that in future it will be water that is the underlying bone of contention. And in many parts of the planet, it is not so much a shortage of water but rather a shortage of usable clean water that is the problem.

One of the many applications of Nanotechnology in the environmental space could be a contribution to the water purification process. The traditional approach to purification is to build large plants which perform the treatment process on large scale. But this is susceptible to attack (e.g. bio-terrorists) much more easily than if water is purified at the point of use in many local places. Once the core technology is mainstream, this local approach is also likely to be more cost-effective. Local purification ideally also addresses the particular contaminates affecting the water in an area.

A whole range of nanotechnology could be brought to bear on water purification. This includes smart membranes, nanocatalysts, nanosensors and nanoabsorbants. Combining these into personal water treatment devices which can be programmed to work at the atomic and molecular level will revolutionise one environmental challenge facing the world.

Wearable batteries

One of the ways we will integrate with our computing technology in the future is to wear it, as I have blogged about before. One important component of this is how to power the devices we wear. Scientists have now presented how a coating of carbon nanotube 'ink' on ordinary polyester or cotton fabrics can store electrical energy. The interwoven fibres of such materials are ideal absorbers for for the billionth of a metre across carbon tubes. Once coated, stretching or washing the fabric leaves the electrical characteristics of the material intact. Previously this type of approach has been identified as working on paper, but fabrics open up a whole new world of wearable computing possibilities. Combined with other wearable components such as solar cells means that the wearable batteries could be charged while being worn.

Chips a decade from now...

As we leave one decade behind and enter 2010, I'm looking ahead another decade as to how some of the manufacturing challenges of the silicon chips, which power so many things, are likely to be overcome. Current chip geometry is already at an incredible small scale compared to even a few years ago, at around 45nm with plans to move towards 22nm. But then there are challenges in actually mounting the electronic components onto the chip while preserving necessary structure. One technique, based on research which shows that DNA strands may be used as a kind of scaffolding, could reduce this down to around 6nm. The research shows that the DNA can self-organise itself on the silicon base.

Other research has shown that DNA can also be used to store and manipulate data and perform simple computations. Computing on this biological scale would enable considerable advances in computer performance. The closer together the components on a chip can be placed, the faster and smaller computers can be. Such DNA based chips are 10-15 years away, but many people celebrating new year's eve this year will remark how quickly the last decade seems to have passed!

Intel presses on with smaller geometry

Intel is due to start shipping commercial processor chips using a 32nm geometry size by the end of this year but is always continuing to push ahead with reductions in die size in order to push the gap further between it and its competitors. They have already demonstrated a 22nm wafer that is populated with RAM chips at a conference. It contains 2.9 billion transistors in an area the size of a fingernail. The 32nm Xeon chips which will find their way into systems during the first months of 2010 are the sort that Apple typically uses in its Pro tower models. The 22nm process should become part of standard manufacturing by the last quarter of 2011 and a move to an amazing 15nm process by 2013.

Graphene on-chip?

There is potential to replace the use of copper interconnections on future super fast chips and processors with single layers of graphite molecules. These ribbons of molecules are known as Graphene. The crucial current carrying capability of Graphene is at least two orders of magnitude that of copper at the same sizes. This should allow higher reliability of chips.

Graphene also has a high thermal conductivity, which may allow interconnections to also serve as heat sinks in next generation chipsets. Fabrication is the ultimate challenge although lithography has so far resulted in ribbon widths between 16 and 52nm and lengths of up to 1 micrometre. This is yet another application of nanotechnology that could impact the future generations of electronics which will be inside devices that we all use.

Polymer based disk storage

Imagine the contents of 250 DVDs being squeezed onto a disk the size of an American 25 cent coin. Researchers from two American universities have been able to create error-free arrays of storage cells just 3 nanometres in size. This is possible by exploiting self assembly properties of chemically dissimilar polymer chains and creating extremely dense but perfectly regular formations. Using this cell size, it is potentially possible to reach storage densities of 10Tb (Terabytes) per square inch!

The same technology may also be exploited in the design of circuits, which currently tends to use photolithography techniques. The problem with this is that the limited resolution of light will eventually be reached. The polymer approach also reduces the amounts of acids and other harsh chemicals required.

Storage as a commodity is a journey which seems to be speeding up.

Cleaning the kitchen ...

Today I spent some time on domestic chores ... including cleaning the kitchen surfaces, cooker hob etc.  It's not my favourite job!  Fortunately in the future, nanotechnology coatings for such surfaces may make it one less task we have to do regularly.  The coatings will be energised by light and oxidise organic molecules converting them into water and/or carbon dioxide, thus successfully targeting and destroying bacteria cell walls and then the cells' components.  This results in the death and decomposition of the bacteria, eliminating bad odours and reducing the spread of the bacteria itself.  Chemicals which could form part of these phot0-catalytic coatings include titanium dioxide.  This is used in various forms in the food and pharmaceutical sectors.   I can't wait until coatings that utilise the unique properties of such substances are developed and widely available!  Domestic chore bliss!

Fit for Success

In a previous posting here, I recently described my second impressions of the Wii games console from Nintendo.  Although impressed with the amount of effort required to play the sports games at a consistently high level, my wife and I have yet to feel the urge to invest in the Wii Balance Board in order to get even more exercise in front of the big screen!  But in the harder economic times, Nintendo is introducing  My Fitness Coach, which offers a similar fitness regime without any additional hardware necessary.  The success of Wii Fit is being cleverly followed up.  

In future, we will have many options for machines around the home that promote good healthy activity and allow us to monitor our condition.  This will be followed by nano-technology lab-on-chip devices that can live inside the body giving an even better indication of what is happening to us.  So perhaps its not such a bad idea that people are getting used to a health and fitness programme from a machine in their lounge?

Clearing up time?

So you had a nice Christmas dinner? You were feeling all full and content after the various courses.  Or perhaps feeling rather stuffed like the turkey that appeared on so many dinner tables?  Either way, when you ventured back into the kitchen afterwards, it is likely that you were confronted with a significant cleaning task!  Wouldn't it be great if in future, many surfaces or materials were self-cleaning?  Well this could well be the case.  Nano-sized bio-organisms will be produced that use light as an energy source and will target the molecules of whatever dirt or foreign bodies are present.  This could not only be applied to kitchen surfaces but also clothing, destroying all the molecules that otherwise cause unpleasant odours to be emitted!  Such auto cleaning is some decades away as yet so unfortunately can't help with this Christmas or next!  

Nano loudspeakers

There is so much potential in nanotechnology.  Some researchers at Tsinghua University in Beijing have found that there are acoustic properties to exploit in sheets of carbon nanotubes such that they could form the basis of a new type of loudspeaker.  Rather than relying on mechanical vibrations through any physical movement of the nanotube sheets, it exploits small temperature changes which occur when alternating electric currents are passed through them.  Thus the pressure changes in the air (producing sound) are caused by thermal oscillations instead.  Because the nanotube sheets can be flexed and formed into different shapes, it may be possible to weave a loudspeaker into clothing for example!  Wearing your loudspeakers will be one way of taking your music with you!  

Nanoscale sensors

I recently read about the combination of two different nanotechnologies which could result in more sensitive but lower power consuming sensor hardware.  The University of Southampton has been doing some work on this, through a European funded project, which would overcome the limitations of existing CMOS techniques.  The first nanotechnology used is nanomachining in order to actually construct such tiny sensor systems.  The second uses single-electron transistors consisting of a single bridge of airspaced silicon which confines individual electrons.  

This approach is being used to produce two types of sensor.  The first is able to sense the change in electrical conductance as a result of the charge transfer from a molecule captured on the bridge channel's surface.  The other sensor type uses the bridge gate in suspension to detect the small mass changes of captured molecules which signals an electrical change in the resonant frequency of the gate.

In a future world where sensors are a natural pervasive part of the environment, nanotechnology seems sure to have a number of applications ... the sensor approach described here being just the tip of the iceberg.  

Designing future chips

The current trend in computer processing chips is multi-core ... and I have written on this topic before.  But lets look at the design of these chips and the numbers involved.  First lets consider the designers - the skilled folk involved in this process.  Back in the 60's and 70's, there were probably around 5000 highly skilled engineers who could design chips, working for the main manufacturers of the first integrated circuits.  The advent of Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) probably took the numbers of designers to the next order (say 50000) and today's 'design' of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chips probably multiplies by the same factor again ... so about 500,000 people.  Further automation through hardware and software systems can extend the numbers to five million and it is conceivable in decades to come that altering the functions of chips will be possible by many people who have little or no familiarity with the technology itself!   Chips will eventually be self-analysing, self-repairing and programmed at extremely high abstraction levels.  

Secondly, lets look at the fabrication sizes.  Already the large manufacturers are talking about 32nm processes.  When it gets to 22nm, the smart money is on optical approaches.  By the time we reach 15nm it will be about economics even more ... (extreme ultraviolet may by then be less expensive than conventional optics).  And when the numbers get 'really small', at about 11nm, the wavelength of the light used will be bigger than the sizes of the features etched on the chip!   In such cases, the best guesses at present are the use of computational lithography to achieve the a profitable yield from the process.  

There aren't many companies on the planet today with the capability to build and run the manufacturing plant required for such processes. There may be even fewer who can cope with these future developments. 

Miracle material or danger?

One of the definite big technologies of the future which will revolutionise the world in a whole raft of different applications is nanotechnology.  Within that, carbon nanotubes are probably the most discussed and researched material; indeed I have written several blog entries about these already.  They are indeed a revolutionary miracle material able to be applied in so many ways to overcome limitations of existing materials in today's world.  

In the past, another material was once hailed as a miracle with applications in so many ways, particularly in respect of durability against electrical, chemical and fire damage.  That material was asbestos.  It wasn't understood at the time however that the tiny fibres it consisted of could easily get airborne and once breathed in by humans, would cause devastating suffering including cancers of the lung and mesothelioma for example.  Over 100,000 people died as a result of this and since then the use of asbestos has now been prohibited or very carefully limited in most of the developed world.

Carbon nanotubes share much of the promise that asbestos did way back, but also share some of the dangers.   Already there are applications in paint substances to produce durable coatings for surfaces which are self-cleaning, and they are being woven into fabrics and used to create smart clothing.  The market is estimated to reach $2 billion by 2014.   The nanotubes' needle characteristics also resemble the asbestos fibres and so now research is being carried out to see if people exposed to large amounts of them might be susceptible to similar lung diseases such as cancer.  Let us hope that this revolutionary material does not become the asbestos story all over again.  

Intelligent advertising?

Is anyone else out there fed up of TV adverts that just say ridiculous things or is it just me?   While I was considering what to write in this blog entry, a TV advertisement stated that a stain removing soap powder has "intelligence" built in.  They even showed some meaningless animation of some dumb stain cells on a garment being attacked by the more intelligent ones in their product.  I'm not sure that any such nanotechnology is employed in this cleaning fluid that could be reasonably explained as intelligent?  In fact if that is the level of the latest hi-tech intelligence, then perhaps we should be worried about other things!  

Then there are those other adverts that use some made up techno-sounding word to describe what is in the particular perfume or antiperspirant or other product and supposedly gives it the edge over rivals.  Often there is a get-out clause at the bottom of the screen for a very short time in a size of font that can barely be read.  

In the UK at least, we have plenty of advertising standards and regulations; yet we still allow these products to bamboozle the non-scientific audience.  I want my mum, and all the others like her, to be more protected from possibly believing such claims.   In the future, businesses that have a trusted brand will be even more important than today.  I hope that striving for this trust may show up the frauds that try to trick customers into buying their products.  And that devices which customers have to hand will help them see through the bogus language that some companies are using. 

A wet future?

The global population is rising and the amount of usable water is declining.  Countries such as the UK, Belgium, Poland and South Africa are already classed as 'water-stressed' (less than 1700 cubic metres per year per capita). Parts of the Middle East and North Africa are further classed as 'water-scarce' (less than 1000 cubic metres).  Countries such as India and parts of Africa are expected to have severe water supply issues in the next decade.  Such areas are also those in which population is expected to grow at the fastest rates.   There is likely to be desperation and conflict over water in the future. 

There are a few different strategies for addressing the water supply problem.   Given that approximately 80% of the Earth's surface is covered by water, it is rather a case of water being in the wrong places and in many cases containing too much salt!   De-salination is possible but needs to be cheaper to perform.  Some new technologies may be able to achieve this.  Nano-technology is one such approach - with new membranes that allow the water to be purified, amongst other ideas.  

Water also has the highest thermal capacity of any commonly available substance.  Humans could learn lessons from nature in this regard where water is an important storage mechanism for energy storage.   Recovering heat from water and recycling waste water are also ways that humans in scarce areas will be able to address the problem.  On the International Space Station, they recycle about 97% of water which infers that space exploration may also offer some innovation for Earth's water shortages.  Mining water from comets in space may be an option in future space travel - though it's harder to envisage this happening very soon!   In the far future, it may be that humans begin getting used to living on or under water more, and embrace a more aquatic lifestyle.  

Processor chip fab process roadmaps

IBM is estimating that 32nm chips will be available as prototypes in Q3 this year, and that these will be 35% faster than the current crop of 45nm chips while consuming 30-50% less power.  This should bode well for the next couple of years' consumer electronics gadgets!   The use of high-K dielectric compounds possibly including Hafnium also apparently extends to a plan to move to a 28nm process as well.  Results from nanotech research experiments suggest that 22nm will also be possible without prohibitively high leakage currents in the gate junctions on chip at that scale.   I believe there are even more exciting nanoscale developments to come in this context in the next decade.  Coupled with the new technologies for powering devices more efficiently in that same decade, the prospects look very bright indeed. 

Nanotube paper to provide power!

Some Chinese physicists have invented some new paper made from carbon nanotubes which is super-thin and super-strong.  It also conducts both heat and electricity extremely well.  One practical use for this 'paper' is to make super-capacitors - devices that store up to a thousand times the electrical energy of normal capacitors.  Such devices are often used in applications where a sudden large surge is required such as when starting a large engine.  But it is not just the starter motors of future traditional cars that might benefit from these developments.  Super-capacitors are also being used in newer hybrid powered cars and in prototype fuel cell based vehicles.  It is also possible that the same nanotube paper could help remove heat generated by computer processor chips.

Nanotubes for future processors?

While some chip manufacturers are researching the 32nm fabrication process in the search for ever more powerful processors with ever less power consumption, an American research institute has determined that carbon nanotubes would outperform copper nanowires at the 45nm process node.  They have arrived at this conclusion by performing quantum mechanical computer modelling simulations rather than empirical laws.  The performance increase comes from bundles of nanotubes having far smaller electrical resistance than copper.  Anything that improves the performance of interconnects on future multi-core processors bodes well for the optimum speed/power consumption quest.