Nanotechnology http://nano.xerox.com/nano

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Nanotechnologyhttp//nano.xerox.com/nano

• Ralph C. Merkle
• Xerox PARC
• www.merkle.com

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Seehttp//nano.xerox.com/nanotech/talksfor an
index of talks
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Sixth Foresight Conference on Molecular
NanotechnologyNovember 12-15Santa Clara,
CAwww.foresight.org/Conferences
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Manufactured products are made from atoms. The
properties of those products depend on how those
atoms are arranged.
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It matters how atoms are arranged

• Coal
• Sand
• Dirt, water and air

• Diamonds
• Computer chips
• Grass

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Todays manufacturing methods move atoms in great
thundering statistical herds

• Casting
• Grinding
• Welding
• Sintering
• Lithography

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The principles of physics, as far as I can see,
do not speak against the possibility of
maneuvering things atom by atom. It is not
anattempt to violate any laws it is something,
in principle, that can be done but in practice,
it has not been done because we are toobig.
Richard Feynman, 1959
http//nano.xerox.com/nanotech/feynman.html
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Most interesting structures that are at least
substantial local minima on a potential energy
surface can probably be made one way or another.
Richard Smalley Nobel
Laureate in Chemistry, 1996
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Nanotechnology(a.k.a. molecular manufacturing)

• Fabricate most structures that are specified with
  molecular detail and which are consistent with
  physical law
• Get essentially every atom in the right place
• Inexpensive manufacturing costs (10-50
  cents/kilogram)

http//nano.xerox.com/nano
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Terminological caution

• The word nanotechnology has become very
  popular. It can be used indiscriminately to
  refer to almost any research area where some
  dimension is less than a micron (1,000
  nanometers) in size.
• Example sub-micron lithography

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Possible arrangements of atoms
What we can make today (not to scale)
.
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The goal of molecular nanotechnology a healthy
bite.
.
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Molecular Manufacturing
We dont have molecular manufacturing today. We
must develop fundamentally new capabilities.
.
What we can make today (not to scale)
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• ... the innovator has for enemies all those who
  have done well under the old conditions, and
  lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under
  the new. This coolness arises ... from the
  incredulity of men, who do not readily believe in
  new things until they have had a long experience
  of them.
• from The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli

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Well start a major project to develop
nanotechnology when we answer yes to three
questions

• Is it feasible?
• Is it valuable?
• Can we do things today to speed its development?

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Products
Products
Core molecular manufacturing capabilities
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Today
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Overview of the development of molecular
nanotechnology
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
Products
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Two more fundamental ideas

• Self replication (for low cost)
• Programmable positional control (to make
  molecular parts go where we want them to go)

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Von Neumann architecture for a self replicating
system
Universal Computer
Universal Constructor
http//nano.xerox.com/nanotech/vonNeumann.html
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Drexlers architecture for an assembler
Molecular computer
Molecular constructor
Positional device
Tip chemistry
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Illustration of an assembler
http//www.foresight.org/UTF/Unbound_LBW/chapt_6.h
tml
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• The theoretical concept of machine duplication is
  well developed. There are several alternative
  strategies by which machine self-replication can
  be carried out in a practical engineering setting.

Advanced Automation for Space Missions Proceedings
of the 1980 NASA/ASEE Summer Study
http//nano.xerox.com/nanotech/selfRepNASA.html
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A C program that prints out an exact copy of
itself

• main()char q34, n10,a"main() char
  q34,n10,acsc printf(a,q,a,q,n)c"printf
  (a,q,a,q,n)

For more information, see the Recursion
Theorem http//nano.xerox.com/nanotech/selfRep.ht
ml
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Complexity of self replicating systems (bits)
C program 808 Von Neumann's universal
constructor 500,000 Internet worm (Robert Morris,
Jr., 1988) 500,000 Mycoplasma capricolum 1,600,0
00 E. Coli 9,278,442 Drexler's
assembler 100,000,000 Human 6,400,000,000
NASA Lunar Manufacturing Facility over
100,000,000,000
http//nano.xerox.com/nanotech/selfRep.html
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How cheap?

• Potatoes, lumber, wheat and other agricultural
  products are examples of products made using a
  self replicating manufacturing base. Costs of
  roughly a dollar per pound are common.
• Molecular manufacturing will make almost any
  product for a dollar per pound or less,
  independent of complexity. (Design costs,
  licensing costs, etc. not included)

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How strong?

• Diamond has a strength-to-weight ratio over 50
  times that of steel or aluminium alloy
• Structural (load bearing) mass can be reduced by
  about this factor
• When combined with reduced cost, this will have a
  major impact on aerospace applications

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How long?

• The scientifically correct answer is I
  dont know
• Trends in computer hardware suggest early in the
  next century perhaps in the 2010 to 2020 time
  frame
• Of course, how long it takes depends on what we do

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Developmental pathways

• Scanning probe microscopy
• Self assembly
• Hybrid approaches

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Moving molecules with an SPM (Gimzewski et al.)
http//www.zurich.ibm.com/News/Molecule/
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Self assembled DNA octahedron(Seeman)
http//seemanlab4.chem.nyu.edu/nano-oct.html
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DNA on an SPM tip(Lee et al.)
http//stm2.nrl.navy.mil/1994scie/1994scie.html
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Buckytubes(Tough, well defined)
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Bucky tube glued to SPM tip(Dai et al.)
http//cnst.rice.edu/TIPS_rev.htm
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Building the tools to build the tools

• Direct manufacture of a diamondoid assembler
  using existing techniques appears difficult
  (stronger statements have been made).
• We should be able to build intermediate systems
  able to build better systems able to build
  diamondoid assemblers.

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Diamond Physical Properties

• Property Diamonds value Comments
• Chemical reactivity Extremely low
• Hardness (kg/mm2) 9000 CBN 4500 SiC 4000
• Thermal conductivity (W/cm-K) 20 Ag 4.3 Cu
  4.0
• Tensile strength (pascals) 3.5 x 109
  (natural) 1011 (theoretical)
• Compressive strength (pascals) 1011 (natural) 5 x
  1011 (theoretical)
• Band gap (ev) 5.5 Si 1.1 GaAs 1.4
• Resistivity (W-cm) 1016 (natural)
• Density (gm/cm3) 3.51
• Thermal Expansion Coeff (K-1) 0.8 x 10-6 SiO2
  0.5 x 10-6
• Refractive index 2.41 _at_ 590 nm Glass 1.4 - 1.8
• Coeff. of Friction 0.05 (dry) Teflon 0.05
• Source Crystallume

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A hydrocarbon bearing
http//nano.xerox.com/nanotech/bearingProof.html
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A planetary gear
http//nano.xerox.com/nanotech/gearAndCasing.html
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A proposal for a molecular positional device
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Molecular tools

• Today, we make things at the molecular scale by
  stirring together molecular parts and cleverly
  arranging things so they spontaneously go
  somewhere useful.
• In the future, well have molecular hands that
  will let us put molecular parts exactly where we
  want them, vastly increasing the range of
  molecular structures that we can build.

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Synthesis of diamond todaydiamond CVD

• Carbon methane (ethane, acetylene...)
• Hydrogen H2
• Add energy, producing CH3, H, etc.
• Growth of a diamond film.

The right chemistry, but little control over the
site of reactions or exactly what is synthesized.
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A hydrogen abstraction tool
http//nano.xerox.com/nanotech/Habs/Habs.html
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Some other molecular tools
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A synthetic strategy for the synthesis of
diamondoid structures

• Positional control (6 degrees of freedom)
• Highly reactive compounds (radicals, carbenes,
  etc)
• Inert environment (vacuum, noble gas) to
  eliminate side reactions

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The impact of molecular manufacturingdepends on
whats being manufactured

• Computers
• Space Exploration
• Medicine
• Military
• Energy, Transportation, etc.

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How powerful?

• In the future well pack more computing power
  into a sugar cube than the sum total of all the
  computer power that exists in the world today
• Well be able to store more than 1021 bits in the
  same volume
• Or more than a billion Pentiums operating in
  parallel

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Space

• Launch vehicle structural mass will be reduced by
  about a factor of 50
• Cost per pound for that structural mass will be
  under a dollar
• Which will reduce the cost to low earth orbit by
  a factor of better than 1,000
• http//science.nas.nasa.gov/Groups/Nanotechnology/
  publications/1997/applications/

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It costs less to launch less

• Light weight computers and sensors will reduce
  total payload mass for the same functionality
• Recycling of waste will reduce payload mass,
  particularly for long flights and permanent
  facilities (space stations, colonies)

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• Disease and illness are caused largely by damage
  at the molecular and cellular level
• Todays surgical tools are huge and imprecise
  in comparison
• http//nano.xerox.com/nanotech/
  nanotechAndMedicine.html

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• In the future, we will have fleets of surgical
  tools that are molecular both in size and
  precision.
• We will also have computers that are much
  smaller than a single cell with which to guide
  these tools.

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A revolution in medicine

• Today, loss of cell function results in cellular
  deterioration
• function must be preserved
• With future cell repair systems, passive
  structures can be repaired. Cell function can be
  restored provided cell structure can be inferred
• structure must be preserved

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Cryonics
37º C
37º C
Freeze
Revive
-196º C (77 Kelvins)
Temperature
Time
( 50 to 150 years)
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Clinical trialsto evaluate cryonics

• Select N subjects
• Freeze them
• Wait 100 years
• See if the medical technology of 2100 can indeed
  revive them
• But what do we tell those who dont expect to
  live long enough to see the results?

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Todays choicewould you rather join

• The control group
• (no action required)?
• Or the experimental group
• (contact Alcor www.alcor.org)?

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• Military applications of molecular manufacturing
  have even greater potential than nuclear weapons
  to radically change the balance of power.
• Admiral David E. Jeremiah, USN (Ret)
• Former Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
• November 9, 1995

http//nano.xerox.com/nanotech/nano4/jeremiahPaper
.html
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Nanotechnology and energy

• The sunshine reaching the earth has almost 40,000
  times more power than total world usage.
• Molecular manufacturing will produce efficient,
  rugged solar cells and batteries at low cost.
• Power costs will drop dramatically

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Nanotechnology and the environment

• Manufacturing plants pollute because they use
  crude and imprecise methods.
• Molecular manufacturing is precise it will
  produce only what it has been designed to
  produce.
• An abundant source of carbon is the excess CO2 in
  the air

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• The best way
• to predict the future
• is to invent it.
• Alan Kay