News Blog

The recently concluded K 2007 conference in Düsseldorf, Germany, featured a variety of recent advances in materials science that will change your life. No hyperbole there--just a safe prediction.

I didn't make it to the show, but I've been following the announcements on the Web site of Design News, a trade publication for mechanical engineers. The K Fair is all about plastics...but in truth, the line between plastic and metal is getting pretty blurry these days.

Indeed, companies such as DuPont are now talking about plastics climbing "the metals replacement curve." MetaFuse technology, co-developed by DuPont, Morph Technologies, Integran, and PowerMetal Technologies, combines "nanocrystalline" metals with engineering polymers to create objects with exceptionally high stiffness-to-weight ratios.

Carbon nanotubes promise to replace metal entirely in future automobiles, mobile electronics, and other products. At K 2007, companies such as Bayer and RTP showed carbon nanotube-based composite plastics. Earlier in October, Bayer announced it's building a second production facility for carbon nanotubes. The new facility's capacity is only 30 metric tons per year; Bayer and all of today's suppliers together can barely handle the demand for experimentation and prototyping, but Bayer says its "medium term" plan is to build another facility with the capacity to produce 3,000 tons per year. That's starting to become significant, I think.

Carbon-fiber composites are already strong enough to replace aluminum and steel in certain circumstances, chiefly where cost is secondary to weight or style, as in Toyota's 1/X concept, a carbon-fiber car weighing just 926 pounds, or the 2008 BMW M3--I'm planning to buy one of these next year myself.

But carbon nanotubes are so much stronger than carbon (graphite) fibers that they will likely enable entirely new design philosophies, in the same way that steel revolutionized shipbuilding, and aluminum made commercial aviation practical. We define prehistoric times in terms of materials science--the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age--and we're on the cusp of a new age based on practical nanotechnology.

Two scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found a way to use light beams for picking up, holding, and moving around cellular and microscopic objects on a microchip, MIT announced Tuesday.

Matthew J. Lang, assistant professor of MIT's biological and mechanical engineering departments, and David C. Appleyard, graduate student in the biological engineering department, determined that using infrared light on select silicon wafers is a way to use optical tweezers as a tool for manipulating objects on microchips.

The breakthrough could have applications in both the biology and electronics industry, according to Lang.

While the idea of optical tweezers has been around for about 30 years, it has necessitated a transparent glass surface in order to work and was, therefore, not applicable to opaque silicon chips. Lang and Appleyard hypothesized that silicon wafers are transparent to infrared wavelengths of light and thought that might be a way to solve the dilemma. The only problem was that the two were initially unsure which types of silicon wafers might work with the new method.

As silicon wafers are expensive and usually only available in bulk, the scientists posted help-wanted signs around MIT. They were able to initially test their theory on used silicon wafers discarded by scientists working on other projects. Once they determined which ones worked best, they then ordered them for the next phase of the project.

The system can work on cells within the nanometer-to-micrometers range, the common range of all living cells, according to Appleyard. The scientists have also been able to move a hollow object that was 20 micrometers and manipulate 16 E. coli cells on a microchip to spell out the letters "MIT."

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Society-impacting technological change will increasingly come from physical sciences, such as chemistry, physics and mechanical engineering, rather than information technologies, said Matthew Nordan, the president of nanotechnology research firm Lux Research.

Nanotech at work.

(Credit: LifeStraw.com)

Nordan on Monday provided an overview of nanotechnology at the firm's annual conference here, arguing that material sciences will fuel technological development and economic growth in the coming years in much the way that information sciences did in the last 20 years.

These hard sciences are also critical to addressing the global problems of providing fresh water to billions of people worldwide, as well as energy to growing economies.

Nanotechnology deals with very small-scale materials--a nanometer is a billionth of a meter. A human hair is about 80,000 nanometers wide.

A wide range of industries are already using nanotechnology in everything from consumer skin care products to golf balls. By designing custom materials, product manufacturers can create new pharmaceuticals or surfaces that are harder, yet lighter.

Nordan pointed out a few examples where nanotechnology can play a disruptive role in the economy.

The Boeing 787 plane has 15 percent titanium in its body because the material is lighter than other metals. But the worldwide supply of titanium will not be able to meet the projected orders of Boeing's planes, Nordan said.

Instead, new materials using nanotechnology are being developed, and that has significant implications for titanium suppliers and its customers.

Nordan showed off a ping pong ball covered in a nano-nickel material engineered by Integran Defense Systems. He smashed the ball between two pieces of wood with a hammer and wasn't able to dent it.

This material, which is cheaper than titanium, could be worth tens of billions of dollars, he said.

Taking a look at the global economy, Nordan said nanotechnologies are set to play an integral role in economic growth and environmental sustainability.

He argued that material sciences in fields such as chemistry, physics and mechanical engineering are increasingly the source for new technologies that fuel worker productivity and job creation.

In energy, solar photovoltaic companies are using nanotechnology to improve the efficiency of solar cells. The blades on wind turbines, meanwhile, can be covered with water-resistant material to prevent ice from forming, which slows down power generation.

Because of rising energy demand, companies with expertise in materials will increasingly make energy applications, such as large-scale storage.

"No one of these energy technologies will be required--all of them will be," Nordan said.

Water is another area where nanotechnology can be brought to bear with great impact. Companies such as Nano H20 developing membranes that act as filters to clean water.

Nordan showed off the application of nanotechnology in water purification. He had a bowl of water he got from a local pond and drank it through a straw-shaped water filter. Called LifeStraw, the filter is designed for the developing world where lack of access to clean water is a huge health problem.

"Access to water and energy have sparked wars in the past. There are big implications if we don't develop alternatives," he said.

Within the next decade, you might take calls and surf the Web on a diamond-laced handset that would put the iPhone to shame. Unlike high-end, gem-studded cell phones, no bling would sparkle on the shell. But inside, diamond-covered components would enable crisper, faster communications.

Advanced Diamond Technologies is bringing diamond down to size for potential usage in a vast array of products, including wireless phones and medical implants. The company announced last week that it can make the first diamond coatings ideal for use in microelectromechanical devices, such as "tuning forks" in cell phones. The grains in ADT's diamond films are nearly a billion times thinner than those used in industrial cutting tools and surgical scalpels, and they don't need to be polished.

"What we're trying to do is remove barriers to companies evaluating diamond," said Neil Kane, president of ADT. "It's still a young technology and I'm not trying to say it's equivalent to silicon, but we've removed one of the largest bottlenecks towards adoption."

The global market for radiofrequency chips in mobile phones alone could amount to $1.1 billion by 2010, according to Wicht Consulting in Germany.

The hardest natural substance on the planet, diamond resists heat and water and is biochemically inert, making it a natural fit for smart chips and surgical implants. Diamond glitters with potential, but until recently has been too costly to make a common ingredient in consumer electronics.

Yet prices are coming down as the manufacturing process speeds up. ADT can cultivate diamond films in a matter of hours. The spinoff of Argonne National Laboratory converts the carbon atoms in methane gas into diamond, which it then essentially spray-paints onto surfaces for a mirror-smooth finish.

The company is working with Argonne and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to create high-speed telecommunications devices. ADT's diamond coatings are also being explored for use in retinal implants that would restore sight to the blind.

And those gem-encrusted handsets? They could be cheaper in the coming decades, as more companies grow jewelry-ready, chunky diamonds in labs.

I don't have an image to show you of fullerenes (gotta love that name), but they are small. Too tiny for my digital camera. Each fullerene is a nanoparticle also known as "buckyball" and it contains about 60 carbon atoms. Those are arranged to form tiny hollow cages.

Now nanotechnologists at the Virginia Commonwealth University have used fullerenes to stop allergic reactions--not just treat allergy symptoms but prevent them and leave you with a clear head, which is more than you ever hoped for. The little carbon cages interrupt the basic process of the mast cells. Those guys are all over your body and release histamines when in contact with some allergenic substance. The fullerenes will prevent the histamines from getting loose and causing the usual allergic havoc we all know too well.

No word on how soon we might get our first chance to inhale these little fullerenes. But I, for one, am holding my breath.

Chris Eberspacher, a recognized expert in thin film technology and one of the higher-level technical executives at Nanosolar, has left the company.

Eberspacher had been serving as chief scientist for the company, and before that he was the vice president of research and development.

An analyst termed the departure "significant" because of the technical complexities involved in manufacturing, although Nanosolar CEO Martin Roscheisen said the departure does not impact the company. Nanosolar hopes to produce copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) solar cells by printing the active CIGS material onto thin foils or other substrates. Eberspacher is an expert in this field. He holds patents and has published patents on printing CIGS.

Prior to working at Nanosolar, he was a co-founder of Unisun and before that, Eberspacher headed up research and development at Arco Solar, which is now owned by Shell.

Like most other CIGS companies, Nanosolar doesn't commercially produce products yet, but hopes to start in 2008. Most of the competitors use a somewhat similar chemical formula for CIGS: the challenge comes in mass manufacturing.

CIGS companies will overcome these challenges, but it will take time and it's unclear at this point which process will work best, wrote Rommel Noufi, a researcher at the National Renewable Energy Lab, in an e-mail. (Noufi wrote the email in response to a question about CIGS in general a few weeks ago and not in response to Eberspacher's departure.)

"There are as many ways to deposit CIGS as there are industries. Some will overcome, and some will fail. Unlike silicon, where everyone almost makes the wafers the same way, in the CIGS case, each industry has to build its own equipment to match their process," Noufi wrote.

Nanosolar will print its CIGS cells. Others will sputter the material onto substrates. Miasole and DayStar, two other CIGS companies, have recently experienced delays.

Nanosolar's Roscheisen, who confirmed the departure, said that Eberspacher over the last 18 months had largely been shifted out of day-to-day management. Meanwhile, Nanosolar has moved from conducting basic scientific research toward manufacturing. Thus, Eberspacher's role as scientist and researcher has become less central to the company's current objectives.

"Chris decided to leave, basically realizing that we now have a ton of really talented and passionate engineers on our team who know their respective areas so well that there's really not much for Chris to contribute," Roscheisen wrote in an email. "We remain on friendly terms with Chris and appreciate his pioneering a lot of the early science in CIGS."

Roscheisen added that the products and processes Nanosolar is currently relying on do not rely on Eberspacher's work.

When he came to Nanosolar in 2004, however, the company trumpeted the hire.

"Chris could have joined any solar company; the fact that he chose Nanosolar is a great validation of the company's team and technology," said Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital in a press release issued by Nanosolar. (Benchmark is an investor.)

Sources say that more executive changes elsewhere in the CIGS world are afoot as well.

Figuring out a way to make semiconductors make themselves would certainly save everyone a lot of time and money, and IBM next week says it will discuss a technique that moves it closer to the goal of self-assembly.

On May 3, researchers will provide some details on what IBM says is a commercially practical technique for applying an insulating layer through chips using self-assembly. Now, adding layers and structures to a chip requires costly and time consuming processes: intricate patterns are etched onto microscopic surfaces, sprayed with metals, and then with chemicals to remove excess metal particles.

In self-assembly, physical, chemical and/or biological forces do the heavy lifting. Cambrios Technologies, for instance, has come up with a microorganism that lets chip makers add an insulating layer of cobalt into semiconductors by simply dipping the wafer into solutions. One end of the organism attaches to copper and the other to cobalt. By dipping a wafer etched with copper circuits into a vat of the microbes, and then dipping it into a solution containing cobalt, the layer is applied.

"It's a high-value, low-volume soup," is how Hash Pakbaz, vice president of development, has described the process. Cambrios is working with chip companies to get the technology integrated into chip manufacturing by around 2010.

Cambrios founder, MIT professor Angela Belcher, has also experimented with organisms that can adhere to, and thus highlight, stressed areas of an airplane wing.

IBM for years has experimented with using self-assembly techniques to grow carbon nanotube arrays.

IBM has not provided many public details, but has only sent out an invitation to set up meetings, so we're extrapolating here. It should be interesting to see if IBM has begun to experiment in the biological realm. The brief notice IBM sent out said the technique comes from its labs, which are more versed in chemistry and physics. Still, it sounds similar to what Cambrios is doing and biology has been gaining many adherents.

It won't be the only chip news next week. The University of Texas will show off on Monday its TRIPS processor, which they hope will be able to perform a trillion operations a second in a few years. IBM collaborated on TRIPS.