the promise of a revolution in manufacturing
Center to create nanotools of the future
BY CHRIS SUTTON
UCLA Today
The National Science Foundation has awarded UCLA a grant worth nearly
$18 million over five years to establish a center that will combine fundamental
science and technology in nanomanufacturing to transform laboratory science
into industrial applications in nanoelectronics and biomedicine.
UCLA is one of only two universities chosen this year to lead such a
center. The other is the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Joining
UCLA at its center will be five other partner institutions: UC Berkeley,
Stanford University, UC San Diego, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
and HP labs. Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Xiang Zhang
and Professor of Electrical Engineering Eli Yablonovitch will direct the
new Center for Scalable and Integrated NanoManufacturing (SINAM). Both
are from UCLA’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied
Science and are members of the California NanoSystems Institute.
Nanoscale mechanical devices are being developed in labs across the
country, but have not been able to reach their maximum potential because
of a lack of materials and tools to manufacture them in a cost-effective
way. SINAM researchers want to bridge the gap between scientific research
and economically feasible manufacturing solutions.
Scientists, for example, will work on developing cost-effective methods
of nanolithography that will enable nanomanufacturing at a resolution
as high as one nanometer.
Another objective will be to establish an industrial consortium to build
strategic partnerships with leading companies, as well as government laboratories.
Almost a dozen companies have already joined SINAM’s industrial
consortium, and Zhang has formed partnerships with several government
laboratories. Zhang has also built an international collaborative program
involving academic and industrial nanotechnology groups from Germany,
Japan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
“Technology will soon master the nanoworld, just as we master
the microworld today,” said Yablonovitch. “There will be new
microscopes, new nanofabrication technologies and new applications in
information technology and medicine. Our center will help create these
new nanotools and to build them into systems that will enable cost-effective
nanomanufacturing.” |
