MicroElectroMechanical Systems in Review

jscribner writes: "Tis the season for tech forecasts and wrap-ups; I got to post this discussion on www.research.ibm.com; it's about how (merely 30 years after Feynman's speech) nanotechnology is finally being applied to chip and storage technologies. The IBM Research article covers RF (Radio Frequency) MEMS, micro-actuator MEMS, and the Millipede project. You can also find some interesting material on IDA's MEMS site and the IEEE/ASME Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems."

Comments

Better disks vs. cool technology

[d5w]

I thought it was a nice arrangement in the article, having the last two sections of the article be about

1. A cool, novel technology with tiny cantilevered sensor/writer tips over a polymer surface giving amazing data density, and
2. An incremental improvement in magnetic disks giving finer control over the head positioning.

Given the history of storage technologies, what odds does anyone here want to give to the commercial success of Millipede vs. magnetic micro-drives, even in small consumer applications that currently use flash?

Devil's advocate

[ConsigliereDea]

Don't hate me...I love the idea. Once people get them into products (cell phones apparently being one of the first) the applications of MEMS are endless. Maybe a coffee maker that has a working self-start timer? Mine never does. But to quote the article... "The Millipede advantage is not only more data in less space but also a lower cost-per-megabyte for consumers than flash. A 64 megabyte flash media card today costs around $100. A consumer could one day buy a postage-stamp-sized 5-10-gigabyte Millipede for potentially a lower price." How many companies are going to make this cost effective? Of course, the cost will drop eventually to make way for even more advanced technologies, but in the mean time will I be paying an exorbitant cost for something that is more than what I need? Cell phones are one thing, servers & data storage another, but how about how much my mechanic will charge me to replace one of these if they go into a car?

Applications

[SevenTowers]

We have been able to control individual atoms for a little while now, and this opens up a wide range of interesting domains. The basic principle came from research on the Snell microscope. Electrons have a non nul probability of existing outside of their electronic shell. They have an associated waveform that is made up of a whole number of cycles (1,2,3...) on a given electronic shell. The tunelling microscope detects electrons (with the help of a very thin piece of material positionned above a surface) that "exist" out of their orbit because they are a waveform. This creates a very small displacment of the tip due to magnetic forces, which is then detected by a doppler shift in a laser bouncing on the tip.

The next step is to reverse the process : move the atoms with the help of a very small tip. This allows for the creation of practically anything. From microscopic valves to pistons, to electrical switches and transistors. The most recent techniques use an etching similar to the one used in making CPUs to build these nano circuits and pieces. The precision achieved is fabulous! People are working on ways to deliver medicine to specific areas of the body or make ultra high quality lubricants with these techniques. By having precise release mechanisms and guiding the nanorobots with a magnetic field, it is possible to release medicine on a cancer tumor, instead of everywhere in the body.

The storage mechanisms works on similar grounds, providing a way to move matter in smaller and smaller increments, and due to the nature of the forces involved, in a very precise way too.

Re:Applications

[dgou]

Moving one atom/electron at a time is quite precise, but also very very slow to assemble any quantity of anything interesting. My personal guess is that these devices will first achieve practical application using some kind of massively parallel assembly mechanism that is chemical rather than mechanical. Either vacuum chamber deposition or perhaps some kind of repeated bathings of various soupy mixtures. Having nanobots roam the surface of a chip and create the circuitry is interesting, but potentially slow. Better to have 'em swarm over a finished board/chip and tweak/disable the brokey parts.

"Control, control... You must learn control!"

Re:Feynman's speech

[tsprad]

Oops! Click the link first, dummy. December 29, 1959. 42 years.

Feynman

[jpostel]

I have to say that Feynman gets so very little credit in this field. He did not really create the concept of nanotech but he layed out a good theoretical framework around which others based their research. The article is worth a read.

I have several of his books and the collected physics lecture texts. I highly recommend them. I see them as setting a standard for physics texts to follow.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/020150064 7

Mesoscopic vs. Nanoscopic

[Doctor K]

The comments I've seen all seem oriented to nanoscopic devices. That technology is still in blue sky phase (lots of potential, but nobody really knows what to do with it and it is still not practical for large scale manufacturing). Mesoscopic MEMs (devices on the order of microns in size instead of angstroms) are already used in commerical products. In fact, chances are, you already own a few and didn't even know it.

Here is an article with some details oriented towards mesoscopic MEMs.

Here is a neat picture of a Mesoscopic MEMs device.

(Bias warning: the supervisor of my research group was co-author of this article.)

Kevin