LONGECITY

The long-held dream of creating atomically precise three-dimensional structures in a manufacturing environment is approaching reality, according to the top scientist at a company making tools aimed at that ambitious goal.

John Randall, Vice President of Zyvex Labs in Richardson, Tex., says his researchers have demonstrated a process that uses a scanning tunneling microscope tip to remove protective surface hydrogen atoms from silicon one at a time and then adds single atomic layers of silicon only to those meticulously cleared areas. Randall describes the achievement today at the AVS 57th International Symposium & Exhibition, which takes place this week in the Albuquerque Convention Center in New Mexico.

To date, Zyvex Labs researchers have demonstrated removal of 50 hydrogen atoms per second. But with experience and innovation, Randall predicts large improvements in the speed of this limiting factor.

"There are many paths to scale-up, including parallelism," he says. "A thousand-fold increase in speed will be fairly easy to achieve."

Within seven years, Randall expects that Zyvex Labs will be selling initial production tools that can remove more than a million hydrogen atoms a second using 10 parallel tips at a cost of about $2,000 per cubic micrometer of added silicon (48 billion atoms).

Applications that would benefit most from having tiny atomically precise structures include nanopore membranes, qubit structures for quantum computers and nanometrology standards. Larger-scale applications, such as nanoimprint templates, would need still further cost-performance improvements to become economically viable.

The Zyvex process is currently used only on silicon surfaces, which are typically coated with hydrogen atoms bound to any exposed silicon atoms. The process has two steps: first, in an ultra high vacuum, a scanning tunneling microscope is directed to remove individual hydrogen atoms from only those locations where additional silicon will later be added. Second, a silicon hydride gas is introduced. A single layer of these molecules adheres to any exposed hydrogen-free silicon atoms. After deposition, the gas is removed and the process is repeated to build up as many three-dimensional layers of atomically pure silicon as is needed.

More information: http://www.avssympos...Number=NS-TuM-3

Provided by American Institute of Physics

Source: http://www.physorg.c...tom-proper.html

I found this very interesting, hopefully you'll find the same

Well, at least it's a start. It'll take at least five or so years for them to scale it up, and we're still only talking about hydrogen. It'll be a few more years till they start talking about stacking more complex molecules.
Edited by Reno, 21 October 2010 - 03:06 AM.

Well, at least it's a start. It'll take at least five or so years for them to scale it up, and we're still only talking about hydrogen. It'll be a few more years till they start talking about stacking more complex molecules.

I would be willing to bet that it will be scaled up in much less than 7 years. It is not only Zyvex that is working on this problem. This is effectively 3D printing on an atomic scale, it will lead to a rapid succession of breakthroughs. Just a few years ago, 'experts' were saying that even this was impossible.

Well, at least it's a start. It'll take at least five or so years for them to scale it up, and we're still only talking about hydrogen. It'll be a few more years till they start talking about stacking more complex molecules.

I would be willing to bet that it will be scaled up in much less than 7 years. It is not only Zyvex that is working on this problem. This is effectively 3D printing on an atomic scale, it will lead to a rapid succession of breakthroughs. Just a few years ago, 'experts' were saying that even this was impossible.

They aren't building stuff out of hydrogen, they are using silicon. Hydrogen is just used as a mask. It's a freaking STM, for godsake. How do you scale that up? Parallelism? How many atomically precise nanodevices are they planning on making at one time? I think this is mostly a laboratory curiosity.

They aren't building stuff out of hydrogen, they are using silicon. Hydrogen is just used as a mask. It's a freaking STM, for godsake. How do you scale that up? Parallelism? How many atomically precise nanodevices are they planning on making at one time? I think this is mostly a laboratory curiosity.

It's nice to see you so positive this time of year niner

They aren't building stuff out of hydrogen, they are using silicon. Hydrogen is just used as a mask. It's a freaking STM, for godsake. How do you scale that up? Parallelism? How many atomically precise nanodevices are they planning on making at one time? I think this is mostly a laboratory curiosity.

Yes, parallelism. You are assuming that this will be used to fabricate end products. Better to use it to create improved deposition devices, i.e. smaller faster 'print heads'. Use a tool to build a tool. Recursive manufacturing. What this demonstrates is way beyond 'lab curiosity', it is a method for building atomically precise 3D structures. Study rapid prototyping (3D printers), and you will see the potential.
Edited by sixfootbrit, 24 December 2010 - 01:48 AM.

Nice.