ABSTRACT
In 1989, scientists at IBM’s Almaden Research Center in California were the ¢rst to show that it is possible to position individual atoms when they wrote the letters “IBM” with 35 xenon atoms at a very low temperature (−270°C). In 1996, scientists at IBM’s Zurich Research Laboratory have shown for the ¢rst time that individual molecules can be moved and precisely positioned at room temperature using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). ¡is pioneering research showed for the ¢rst time that it is possible to directly manipulate molecules and atoms and opened the door to the possibility of doing nanoscale directed assembly. ¡ese developments gave rise to many other scienti¢c breakthroughs in nanoscience over the past few years. ¡e transfer of nanoscience accomplishments into technology, however, is severely hindered by a lack of understanding of barriers to nanoscale manufacturing. For example, while shrinking dimensions hold the promise of exceptional bene¢ts, realistic commercial products cannot be realized without ¢rst answering the question of how one can assemble and connect billions of nanoscale elements, or how one can prevent failures and avoid defects in such an assembly. Most nanotechnology research focuses on manipulating several hundred nanoelements (nanoparticles, nanotubes, nanowires, molecules, etc.) to be assembled into a speci¢c structure or pattern. However, there is a need to conduct fast massive directed assembly of nanoscale elements at high rates and over large areas. To move scienti¢c discoveries from the laboratory to commercial products, a di«erent set of fundamental research issues must be addressed such as scale-up of assembly processes to production volumes, process repeatability and reliability, and integration of nanoscale structures and devices into micro-, meso-, and macroscale products. ¡e ¢eld of nanomanufacturing is very broad and highly interdisciplinary.
