Russians position for nanotech future

RUSSIAN pledges to spend billions in public funds to develop its nanotechnology industry are being treated cautiously by leading British technology companies.
President Dmitry Medvedev said the country will channel 318bn rubles (£6.3bn) into the development of a nanotech infrastructure to increase exports of products built in Russia using the technology.

Oxford Instruments, a British nanotechnology company, said, however, that that it may take time for the cash to become available.
Frazer Anderson, a business development director, from its Bristol-based plasma technology division, said: "Their timescales are a lot longer than ours. If they say $10bn, they probably will do that over the next 10 to 15 years." He added: "If you see big numbers it's excellent but the reality is that it does not always come to pass."
However, Mr Anderson said his company had seen an increase in technology spending from governments worldwide as part of their fiscal stimulus packages.
"We do see President Obama putting more into solar and solid-state lighting. We see that in China. India is on photovoltaics," he said.
This trend had led to more demand for Oxford's equipment. The technology is used to create thin-film or nano-tech devices in everything from the motion sensors in the Nintendo Wii games console to Osram light-emitting diode lights and pure research at institutes such as MIT and Harvard, and Max Planck in Germany.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

New research may lead to revolutionary new devices

Credit: Adam Tsen, Cornell University

Dr. Jiwoong Park of Cornell University, who receives funding for basic research from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), is investigating carbon nanostructures that may some day be used in electronic, thermal, mechanical and sensing devices for the Air Force.

"Devices that are required in many of the Air Force missions are somewhat different from commercial ones in the sense that they are often exposed to harsh environments while maintaining their maximum performance," Park said. "Carbon-based nanostructures, including carbon nanotubes and graphenes (thin layers of graphite) present many exciting properties that may lead to new device structures."

Park's team of researchers is examining single molecules, nanocrystals, nanowires, carbon nanotubes and their arrays in an effort to find a "bridging" material that has a stable structure for making molecular-level bonds. In addition, they are seeking an effective tool for resolving functional and structural challenges. If successful, they will be able to apply the research to future technological advances.
Park's research may contribute to the discovery of new electronic and optical devices that will revolutionize electrical engineering and bioengineering as well as physical and materials science.

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Nanotech Europe 2009

Nanotech Europe offers a broad, interdisciplinary overview of nanotechnology, and the opportunity to meet and discuss with the field's top scientists and leading international companies in the nanotechnology community. The conference has a broad scope, covering leading-edge research, industrial applications and cross-cutting topics including: Nanophotonics, Materials, Health & Bio, Safety, Energy, Instrumentation, Functional Surfaces and Investment.

The published conference programme includes many high-quality speakers such as:Herbert Kohler, Vice President Vehicle and Powertrain, Daimler AG (Germany); Christos Tokamanis, Head of Unit "Nano and converging Sciences and Technologies", DG Research, European Commission; Alexander von Preysing, Senior Vice President, Deutsche Börse AG (Germany); Andreas Jordan, Chief Scientific Officer, MagForce Nanotechnologies AG (Germany); Tapani Ryhänen, Head of Strategic Research, Nokia Research Center (Finland); Wang Chen, Director, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (China); Jeffrey A. Hubbell, Professor, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland); Emmanuel Desurvire, Director, Thales Research & Technology (France); Masakazu Aono, Director General, International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (Japan); Andre Moreira, Investment Manager, BASF Venture Capital (Germany).

"We are delighted to have top scientists from several organizations around the world and leaders from international organizations such as Nokia, Shell, Daimler, Carl Zeiss, BASF, Bayer and Magforce speak about opportunities in nanotechnology", comments Maria Sipilä, Event Director from Spinverse.

Full article

Fibers Could Replace Camera Lenses

Picture a wall that stares back at you. Or a uniform that shows a soldier a 360-degree view of the battlefield. Both scenarios are possible courtesy of a new generation of flexible, translucent fibers developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge. These so-called multimaterial fibers can turn incoming light waves into images without the need for a camera lens. And unlike fiber optic cables, they can transmit images that have been captured across their entire length.
...
The multimaterial fibers developed by the MIT team could solve this problem and provide a host of other benefits. The fibers consist of an array of metal electrodes connected to a semiconductor and are covered by an insulating polymer sheath. The semiconductor layer in the fiber detects light and relays signals via the electrodes to a microprocessor, which combines the signals from an array of the fibers to determine the light's intensity, direction, and color. Visualization software then takes that data and recreates the source image and displays it on a monitor screen. And the whole process is accomplished without a lens.

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PowerShares Lux Nanotech (ETF)

Here is the chart and composition of the PowerShares Lux Nanotech (ETF), probably the best Nanotech ETF in the market.



The fund holdings are as of 7/1/2009:

(Fund Holdings are subject to change)
% of Fund

Consumer Discretionary
3.00%
TM Toyota Motor Corp. (ADS) 3.00%

Financials
4.88%
TINY Harris & Harris Group Inc. 4.88%

Health Care
26.79%
FLML Flamel Technologies S.A. (ADS) 5.71%
BDSI BioDelivery Sciences International Inc. 5.54%
ACCL Accelrys Inc. 5.44%
ELN Elan Corp. PLC (ADS) 5.12%
NSPH Nanosphere Inc. 4.97%

Industrials
11.19%
HEV Ener1 Inc. 4.91%
MMM 3M Co. 3.19%
GE General Electric Co. 3.08%

Information Technology
31.24%
NVEC NVE Corp. 5.61%
VECO Veeco Instruments Inc. 5.52%
FEIC FEI Co. 5.47%
SMMX Symyx Technologies Inc. 5.20%
INTC Intel Corp. 3.24%
HPQ Hewlett-Packard Co. 3.14%
IBM International Business Machines Corp. 3.07%

Materials
22.90%
SDTH ShengdaTech Inc. 6.02%
HW Headwaters Inc. 5.58%
ALTI Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. 5.04%
DD E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. 3.16%
APD Air Products & Chemicals Inc. 3.09%

Nanotech Memory That Holds Data For A Billion Years

More ways to use nanotubes, other than space elevators ;)

US researchers have demonstrated a form of nanotube archival memory that can store a memory bit for a billion years, and has a theoretical trillion bits/square inch density.

The researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley were led by physicist Alex Zettl. They built a prototype device based on a nanoscale iron particle, about 1/50,000th the width of a human hair, moving along a carbon nanotube like a shuttle.

The nano-structure was created in a single step by pyrolysis of ferrocene in argon at 1,000 degreees C. The created nanotube elements are dispersed in isopropanol ultrasonically and deposited on a substrate with electrical contacts applied to the ends of the nanotube. The researchers say these steps are compatible with common semiconductor manufacturing techniques.

By applying an electric current, the iron particle shuttle could be made to move inside the nanotube either away from or towards the current source. When the current was turned off the particle was, as it were, frozen in position. By applying the current in a timed pulse the particle could be made to move a fixed 3nm distance in steps. The speed of movement could be altered by varying the applied bias voltage.

Source: The register

MIT, Portuguese lab form joint nanotech initiative

MIT has announced a collaboration with the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory in Portugal to create a joint initiative to develop nanotechnology-focused research. Anantha Chandrakasan, director of the MIT Microsystems Technology Laboratories, will serve as MIT’s inaugural director of MIT-INL, along with Carl Thompson, director of the Materials Processing Center.

The MIT-INL initiative will add 10 senior research positions and dedicate $35 million to new research in the program’s first five years at MIT.

According to a joint press release, MIT stands to benefit from INL’s strength in biotechnology, nanotechnology, materials science and engineering. MIT-INL is the first U.S. collaboration for INL, a joint development of Portugal and Spain.

On tap for the first joint projects of MIT-INL are “nanoparticles that can selectively adsorb water contaminants, autonomous microsystems that can move around water supplies and sense contaminants, new materials for energy storage, and revolutionary tools and technologies for monitoring our food supply,” the release reports.

Source

MIT Portugal