- HP Details Nanotechnology for
Circuit-Making
By Jay Lyman
www.TechNewsWorld.com
Part of the ECT News Network
06/09/05 11:13 AM PT
http://www.crmbuyer.com/story/hnPkQOp9e5ajux/HP-Details-Nanotechnology-for-Circuit-Making.xhtml
HP's technology amounts to a "more is better" approach,
acknowledging that all of the circuits made at such a small scale
will not be perfect and addressing the shortfall with a higher number
of circuits, more of which are likely to be functional.
HP said its researchers have created a new way to make electronic
circuits using so-called "coding theory," which is already
applied today in certain math, cryptography and telecommunications
applications, including digital cell phones and deep-space probes.
HP said the new design method, based on nanotechnology, could produce
future electronic circuits that are both tiny in size and high in
quality. "The result could be nearly perfect manufacturing
yields with equipment a thousand times less expensive than what
might be required using future versions of current technologies,"
said a company press release on the breakthrough, detailed in a
paper in the June 6 edition of Nanotechnology.
The new design method also involves HP's patented "crossbar
latch" technology, which addresses the size limitations of
today's silicon using an electronic line that retains functionality
at a fraction of the size.
New, Nano Circuits
HP researchers said the new technology addresses the inevitable
defects that will come with electrical component manufacturing as
sizes get down to the scale of the nanometer -- a billionth of a
meter.
"By using crossbar architecture and adding 50 percent more
wires as an 'insurance policy,' we believe it will be possible to
fabricate nano-electronic circuits with nearly perfect yields even
though the probability of broken components will be high."
HP's technology amounts to a "more is better" approach,
acknowledging that all of the circuits made at such a small scale
will not be perfect and addressing the shortfall with a higher number
of circuits, more of which are likely to be functional.
Unreliable Computing
Gartner research vice president Martin Reynolds told TechNewsWorld
the approach is part of what he describes, in a positive sense,
as "unreliable computing."
"What's happening is, we're going to see a decrease in reliability,"
Reynolds said. "Things aren't going to work 100 percent."
Reynolds said while today's technologies tend to depend on reliability
of electronic components, that reliability is certain to shrink
as circuits, transistors and other parts get smaller.
"If at 100 times smaller than regular transistors, you're trying
to build one-to-one [quality], you would never get the right answer,"
he added. "It would never work."
Staying Power of Silicon
Calling HP's latest research "an interesting area," Reynolds
said the company is on the right track to deal with smaller technology
and lower reliability rates by turning many small, unreliable parts
into one, large reliable part.
Nevertheless, the analyst added there is still 10 years of life
in silicon technology, which also continues to improve and shrink.
"The other technologies have to keep up," Reynolds said.
"There'll come a point when they can cross over, but it won't
come for another 10 years. We'll still use silicon because it's
a perfect substrate and we know how to manipulate it. It just won't
be used for circuits.
- Nanotechnology ups cosmetic formulation
08/06/2005
http://www.in-pharmatechnologist.com/news/printNewsBis.asp?id=60522
UK company Malvern has supplied researchers at Particle Sciences
in Pennsylvania, US, with a nano particle characterisation system
as part of efforts to improve the formulation of its recently developed
encapsulated form of retinol, reports Simon Pitman.
Particle Sciences, which develops ingredients for the personal care
and cosmetics industry, had been coming up against problems formulating
retinol, due to its known instability when mixed with other ingredients.
Research has shown that Retinol, a derivative of vitamin A, has
beneficial effects on photo damaged skin, so when formulated correctly
it can prove to be a valuable ingredient in anti-ageing products.
The approach of Particle Science has been to develop an encapsulated
delivery for the ingredient, but the intricacy of this process meant
that the company had to turn to nanotechnology to achieve the all-essential
stability.
Which is where Malvern’s Zetasizer Nano system became useful.
The technology is being used to optimise manufacturing conditions
for the skin care formulation, a multi-component system.
Examination of the effects of compositional changes on particle
size and zeta potential has enabled better understanding and control
of the parameters that determine suspension stability, Malvern claims.
The Zetasizer Nano is also being used to study the impact of surface
chemistry on formulation issues such as the understanding of the
surface and interfacial properties, as well as long term product
stability.
The system uses patented technologies to deliver particle size measurement
in the range 0.6 to 6000 nm and measure the zeta potential of particles
from 5 nm to 10 nm in diameter. Malvern says it has the sensitivity
required for the measurement of highly dilute proteins and polymers
as well as the ability to analyze emulsions at high concentrations.
Nanotechnology involves the study and use of materials at an extremely
small scale – at sizes of millionths of a millimetre –
and exploits the fact that some materials have different properties
at this ultra small scale from those at a larger scale. One nanometer
is the same as one millionth of a millimetre.
In recent years the technology has started to creep into cosmetics
formulations where it has proved successful in skincare formulations
used as anti-aging and sunscreen products, although regulation for
the technology has proved to be tight in view of the limited research
that has been carried out in this still new field.
- Nano World: Nano will boost RFID
tags
NEW YORK, June 6 (UPI)
Nanotechnology could help speed the broad adoption of radio transmitters
the size of a flake of glitter or smaller in nearly everything a
person owns, from clothes to cows, permitting scanners to track
those items from manufacture to end user.
Radio-frequency identification or RFID tags essentially are bar
codes that can be read from a distance, so instead of checking bar
codes on items one by one, scanners can read all of the contents
on shelves or in packages in a single pass. Financial experts suggest
the devices could help save companies and governments billions of
dollars with nearly instant and more accurate data on where all
of their goods are located at all times.
"RFID tags are poised to become the most far-reaching wireless
technology since the cell phone," Cynthia Kuper, chief technology
officer for Micromem Technologies in Toronto, told UPI's Nano World.
At the NanoBusiness Alliance meeting in New York City in May she
cited projections by the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based market-research
firm In-Stat showing worldwide revenues from RFID tags will jump
from $300 million in 2004 to $2.8 billion in 2009.
A RFID tag essentially consists of a radio antenna hooked up to
a microchip. The chip can hold all the information about a tagged
item -- when and where it was made, how to best store and handle
it and so on.
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, threw its weight behind
RFID in 2003, requiring its top 100 suppliers to deploy the tags
for tracking cases and pallets by 2005. Last March the company reported
the most significant mass adoption of the technology to date at
roughly 8 billion tags. AMR Research in Boston, a market-analysis
firm, suggested the cost savings for Wal-Mart could amount to $1.3
billion to $1.5 billion annually.
RFID tags already find use in cars and trucks for automated toll
collection, and the U.S. military requires all of its shipments
include RFID tags. Federal spending on RFID technology is expected
to grow 120 percent by 2009, according to INPUT, of Reston, Va.,
another market-analysis firm.
The key to RFID's broad adoption, from cases to single items, is
dropping its cost from the current 30 cents to 50 cents per tag.
"Nanotechnology could really help accomplish the goal of five-cent
RFIDs for ubiquitous use," Steven Van Fleet, Micromem's senior
RFID adviser, told Nano World.
For instance, most RFID tags currently use antennas etched from
copper or aluminum.
"We're working with a few vendors that have inks with nano-sized
particles in there that allow you to print antennas onto paper,
which are much less expensive and faster to make," said Van
Fleet, who also helps to lead R and V Group in Lagrangeville, N.Y.,
an RFID-label manufacturing company. Another RFID company, Organic
ID, in Colorado Springs, Colo., is looking at making printed antennas
with gold or silver nanoparticles as well as with polymers.
Half of the cost of making an RFID tag lies in attaching the chip
to the antenna, Organic ID Chief Executive Officer Klaus Dimmler
explained.
"We have a machine that costs a million bucks that makes 30
million tags per year. Given the projected RFID market is in the
trillions of tags, that doesn't scale very well," Van Fleet
said.
Researchers are investigating ways to replace current flip-chip
methods, which attach the antenna to the chip using paste that is
then cured, with nano-scale solutions.
"What we're doing is experimenting with several crystal pin
nanostructures put in the attachment glue that, with a little bit
of pressure, make that connection without that curing time,"
Van Fleet said. "We're also using nickel balls and other geometric
forms as well."
When it comes to improving the capacity of RFID microchips, Micromem
is developing magnetic RAM, or MRAM.
"MRAM holds a huge opportunity with RFID. There's a lot of
pressure from the Department of Defense and the Food and Drug Administration,
who want more than just the initial 96 bits of information on a
chip, to thousands and thousands of bits," Van Fleet said.
Unlike all other existing computer memories, which are based on
storing electrical charge, MRAM stores information using nano-sized
magnetic bits, each akin to a compass needle. A computer writes
data into MRAM by flipping each bit's magnetic polarity, allowing
data to be kept even when electrical power is removed.
Moreover, MRAM is resistant to radiation, unlike competing technologies
such as flash memory.
"This makes it more usable for applications that deal with
X-rays, such as with airline tags or military applications, or with
the FDA, who requires tags that come with or inside a container
or package for a pharmaceutical or a food product have to be irradiated,"
Van Fleet said.
The many companies researching MRAM are mostly going after higher-end
applications in handheld devices.
"Micromem is a nano first by using MRAM to go after RFID,"
Kuper said. Reaching 256 bits for an RFID chip as opposed to a gigabit
chip for a cell phone is relatively easy, Van Fleet said. Micromem
plans to pick a partner to develop its MRAM technology for RFID
within the next few months to hopefully reach the market with MRAM
RFID after this partnership in 18 to 24 months.
Future applications of nanotechnology could eliminate the need for
silicon chips entirely with ink-based RFID circuits.
"The best example of this is Organic ID, who (has developed)
a prototype completely in ink. If you look at their cost structure,
it's less than a penny to produce," Van Fleet said. "I
think MRAM is a short-end opportunity eclipsed in the not-too-distant
future by these printed chips."
Van Fleet thinks such printed chips will take 5 to 10 years to reach
the market, but Dimmler predicts his company could have RFID tags
printed with nanoparticles or polymers sooner -- demonstrating feasibility
in 2006, pilot quantities by 2007 and commercial quantities in 2008.
RFID has drawn a lot of controversy because it could endanger privacy
by allowing remote tracking of people and what they own, carry or
have bought. Van Fleet noted second-generation RFID tags are taking
such concerns into account.
"I personally feel you are giving up a lot of value by not
bringing that technology to your house long-term, but there are
people that feel it is an invasion of privacy, and the Gen 2 specifications
give people the opportunity to request a tag get killed at the point
of sale terminal in stores," Van Fleet said. "You can
overwrite the tag with all zeroes. There's also a provision to kill
a tag electrically, the same way you kill electronic security tags
on items in stores now."
Charles Choi covers research and technology for UPI Science News.
E-mail: sciencemail@upi.com
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