Stanford Report, Jan. 14, 2004
Nanotechnology gets boost from National Science Foundation
The National Science Board, the 24-member policy advisory body of the National Science Foundation (NSF), has authorized the foundation to fund a National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN): 13 university sites that will form an integrated, nationwide system of user facilities to support research and education in nanoscale science, engineering and technology. Stanford is a key participant site in the network, which creates the world's largest and most accessible laboratory for work on systems so small that they approach the size of molecules.
Micro-scale sensors
allowed the first-ever measurement of the forces exerted by a
single ant leg. Courtesy Michael
Bartsch
"This network of 13 universities is a major commitment to national leadership in these exciting areas of science and engineering," says Jim Plummer, the Frederick Emmons Terman Dean of the School of Engineering and the John M. Fluke Professor of Electrical Engineering.
"As our future largely relies on products and services based upon nanotechnology, there are rapidly increasing needs for adequate infrastructure to promote research for nanoscale science and engineering as the United States accelerates programs on the National Nanotechnology Initiative," says Stanford Nanofabrication Facility Director Yoshio Nishi, a research professor of electrical engineering and research director of the Center for Integrated Systems.
Nanotechnology research requires a large set of experimental tools and equipment located in a highly controlled, clean environment, Nishi notes. Purchasing, running and sustaining this equipment far exceeds the capabilities of individual faculties or even industry, he says.
The network will meet these needs by combining multiple sites' capabilities, Nishi says. It will enable university students and researchers, as well as scientists from corporate and government laboratories, to have open access to resources they need for studying molecular and higher length--scale materials and processes and applying them in a variety of structures, devices and systems.
NSF is expected to fund the new network with at least $70 million over five years, beginning this month, with the possibility of a five-year renewal.
Sandip Tiwari, director of the NSF-funded Cornell Nanoscale Facility, a national user facility on the Cornell campus, will lead the network. Besides Stanford and Cornell, the other network members who will share their specialized facilities are Georgia Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Howard University, Pennsylvania State University, Triangle National Lithographic Center (operated by North Carolina State University and University of North Carolina), University of California-Santa Barbara, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, University of New Mexico, University of Texas-Austin and University of Washington-Seattle.
NSF Engineering Adviser Lawrence Goldberg says the new network is a significant expansion of the capabilities of the decade-old, five-university National Nanofabrication Users Network (NNUN), which it replaces. NNUN partners were Stanford, Cornell, Penn State, UC-Santa Barbara and Howard.
Indeed, says Goldberg, the NNIN not only will provide users across the nation with access to leading-edge tools and instruments but also will contribute to a new workforce skilled in nanotechnology and the latest laboratory techniques.
"NNIN will implement, on a national scale, innovation in education that will impact all levels from professional through K-12, include outreach efforts to nontraditional users, reach underrepresented groups and disseminate knowledge to the wider technical community and public," he says. "It will also develop the intellectual and institutional capacity needed to examine and address societal and ethical implications of nanotechnology."
Cornell's Tiwari notes: "By assembling and offering to share our specialized resources with any and all qualified users, we have created the world's largest, most comprehensive and accessible laboratory for research and development at extremely small dimensions. Networking America's very best talent and tools for research, development and training will ensure this nation's leadership in nanotechnology for the future."
The user network includes the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility, which is housed in the Center for Integrated Systems building, and the Stanford Nanocharacterization Laboratory, housed in the McCullough building and headed by materials science and engineering Professor Robert Sinclair. Nishi says the network "will provide strong resources across a broad range of disciplines in nanotechnology: in fabrication, robust and reproducible synthesis, characterization and prototyping of complex nanostructures, devices and systems."
The Stanford nanofabrication and nanocharacterization facilities will serve academic and industrial users both on campus and off. Stanford will share more than 100 tools, Nishi says. Key activities will include electron beam lithography, optical lithography, a large variety of etching and deposition of thin films, wafer bonding, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and focused ion beam microscopy.
"NNIN will allow [the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility] to keep providing stable infrastructure support for the next five years, and possibly 10 years, to our faculty and students, other academic institutions and also industries largely from the Bay Area for broad and often interdisciplinary research as well as to provide support to remote locations at a higher and broader level than under NNUN," Nishi explains.
Tiwari notes the need for discovery-driven research at a time when most industry research is mission and profit oriented. Finding a balance is necessary, he says. "In the experimental science and engineering research at the nano and microscale, exciting interdisciplinary research depends on sharing the diverse resources, techniques, tools and knowledge from various disciplines and institutions so that researchers can follow their own interests. This network brings together these resources for the overall good of the nation and is critical to the success of research in this new environment."
Says Plummer: "The Stanford Nanofabrication Facility has provided a remarkable experimental resource for Stanford faculty and students for the past decade, as part of the NNUN program. It has provided a 'nano sandbox' in which creative people can explore their ideas. The new NNIN network will build on this success, providing expanded opportunities for Stanford researchers, for industry and for the nation's scientists to explore the tremendous opportunities nanoscience and nanoengineering promise."
Yoshio Nishi
