{"id":48169,"date":"2017-09-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/nanotechnology-the-biggest-little-innovation-in-tech\/"},"modified":"2017-09-04T13:32:12","modified_gmt":"2017-09-04T13:32:12","slug":"nanotechnology-the-biggest-little-innovation-in-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/2\/28703\/hardware\/microprocessors\/nanotechnology-the-biggest-little-innovation-in-tech","title":{"rendered":"Nanotechnology: The Biggest Little Innovation in Tech"},"content":{"rendered":"
To more than a few people, nanotechnology<\/a> has an inherently ominous tone. After all, avid sci-fi readers won\u2019t soon forget the out-of-control nanoswarm in Michael Crichton\u2019s best-selling 2002 novel, “Prey.” But more than a decade later, nanotech is still a hot topic in research labs around the world, and it doesn\u2019t seem quite as dangerous, or nearly as esoteric, as it used to. These days, nanotech research is going on in many different fields, from manufacturing to health care, and is playing a role in many different kinds of engineering. But like many buzzwords, many folks are familiar with nanotechnology without knowing what it really means, or how advances in nanotech are likely to influence the rest of the 21st century. Let’s take a look at the big strides this little technology is making in the IT world.\n<\/p>\n One of the first steps to understanding this kind of science is figuring out what kind of scale nanotechnology addresses. There are two main ways to do this \u2013 the first and more technical way is a little simpler \u2013 a nanometer, as a basic unit of size, is one billionth of a meter. In other words, divide the size of the head of a pin by about a million and you get a nanometer.\n<\/p>\n Nanotechnology, then, is essentially design at an atomic scale. Or nearly. While the atomic scale is somewhat smaller than the nanotech scale, there\u2019s a good deal of similarity between the sizes of nano materials and those of naturally occurring molecules. Plus, if you think about the way atoms come together to make something in a macro scale, it makes a lot of sense in explaining how modern industries are using microscopic constructions to create products and drive research.\n<\/p>\n So what’s the point of making something so tiny? The answer is that if you get down to the tiny building blocks of anything, you can engineer stronger or more durable materials, better shielding or coating, or other kinds of improvements. This means big changes in all kinds of manufacturing, including food, cosmetics, clothing appliances, health care and, of course, electronics. That’s why no area of science is perhaps more affected by nanotech discoveries than the IT field, where nano-design is quickly renovating the standards for processors<\/a> and devices.\n<\/p>\n Caroline Ross is the associate head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT; much of her work deals with various new ways to create smaller hardware, where nanoscale engineering can drive improvements in both data storage<\/a> and logic applications. She says nanotech’s biggest potential lies in “extending the scaling and the functionality” of devices.\n<\/p>\n In describing how nanotech is used in assembly, Ross refers to microelectronic<\/a> devices, which are basically built on a nanoscale. Some examples? Ross explains that the channel length of transistors<\/a> in microprocessors<\/a> is typically 20\u201330 nanometers, and the most densely packed features in memory chips<\/a> are spaced apart by a similar distance, while the thicknesses of various material layers are also measured on the nanoscale. This provides a very clear view of exactly how astoundingly small these systems are \u2013 and what could be accomplished by making them even smaller.\n<\/p>\nWhat Is Nanotechnology?<\/span><\/h2>\n
Nanotech in the IT Field<\/span><\/h2>\n