Nanotechnology was a grand futuristic vision thathas, over the last decade, started to work its wayback toward the reality of serious marketplaceapplications. In doing so it has become the powerful

force that it is destined to bea force that will changetraditional industries in the near future, dominate thecompetition in high technology a few years down the road,and permeate all manufacturing and processing inabout a decades time. Along the way, it willbanish its own hypes, create hugely compellingmarket values, and define industrialcompetitiveness for nations for years to come. For a small andtechnology-driven economy like Taiwan, making plans to wina place in this fiercely contested global race to the bottomrequires a truly coherent effort that matches not only thecountrys nanotechnology aspirations but also, much more

importantly, its own comparative advantages. Above all, theremust be an industrialization focus. Only thus could itsrelatively modest resources be used for truly meaningful and,hopefully, even disproportional gains.

Nanotechnology represents a most fundamental paradigmshift. Until now, technology has been only one way from thetop downwhere we start with sizable pieces of materials and

work them down toward ever smaller and moreprecise dimensions. Doing things this way hasbecome ever harder as the dimensions we have todeal with are becoming ever tinier.

There is, fortunately, an alternative now. Scientificprogress has accumulated a critical mass. We are now in pos-session of enough tools and capabilities that would allow us togo the other directionfrom the bottom upwhere we startwith building blocks measured in nanometers (a nanometer is

44 IEEE CIRCUITS & DEVICES MAGAZINE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 20048755-3996/04/$20.00 2004 IEEE

Jih Chang Yang

ARTVILLE

one billionth of a meter) and work our way up. It opens up avast store of heretofore-inaccessible innovating opportunitiesthat are fast becoming a main driving force for differentiationacross a wide range of products and industries. Such are thepromises of nanotechnology.

DEFINING NANOTECHNOLOGYA nanometer is a very, very small scale, and smallness surelyhas its allures. However, the central point about nanotechnol-ogy is not smallness itself, but the abundance of brand newsubstance properties that can only be uncovered and accessedthrough the abilities to observe, control, and manipulate thevery small. The true value of nanotechnology is derivedthrough capturing these brand-new substance properties andcapturing them in cost-effective, market-viable ways. Fromthis perspective, nanotechnology (as opposed to nanoscience)can be defined as:

technologies that lead to applications derived from har-nessing new substance properties through the abilitiesto control and manipulate substances in length scalessmaller than 100 nm

that these applications are, or have realistic prospects tobecome, cost performance superior and market-viable.

Technologies that do not comply with the first requirementare not nano technologies. Those that do not comply withthe second will have little significance, as far as being tech-nology is concerned. The latter is an especially importantconsideration. Either we make the technology cost effectiveenough or find applications with values-added high enough tojustify the costs.

TAIWANS NATIONAL NANOTECHNOLOGY PROGRAM

As an economy that specializes in high-technology manufac-turing, Taiwan will not be absent in this global race to thebottom. In June 2002 the government approved an NT$21.5billion (approximately US$630 million) national nanotechnol-ogy program to be conducted over the six-year period, startingin 2003.

Even at an average of about US$100 million a yearthelargest investment ever made by the government on a singleR&D topic, Taiwans National Nanotechnology Program is stillconsiderably smaller in size compared to similar such pro-grams of the larger economies. The governments of the UnitedStates (at US$774 million for the year 2003 and going on toUS$847 million in 2004), Japan (US$810 million for the year2003 and could be more in 2004) and Europe (US$1.7 billionfor the years 2002 to 2006 by the European Union alone) areall committing much larger sums, and their annual budgetnumbers over the past few years didnt just increase, they mul-tiplied. Never was an R&D topic so vigorously pursued by all ofthe technologically significant economies of the world, andthere can be little doubt that the coming nanotechnology bat-tles in the global marketplace will be some of the fiercest ever.

For a small economy like Taiwan competing for a place inthis great race, its national program would have to be much

less open ended. There needs to be a much stronger emphasison R&D investment returns. For these reasons, over 60% ofthe national program resources had been targeted at theindustrialization of nanotechnology, the highest such concen-tration amongst all of the national programs of the world.

INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

More than half of Taiwans National Nanotechnology Pro-gram, or over 80% of its industrialization tasks, will be led bythe Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI)Tai-wans center for the development and dissemination of indus-trial technologies.

ITRI was founded in 1973 by the government of TaiwanROC as a nonprofit R&D institution to spearhead the buildingand development of Taiwans high-tech industries and attendto the technological needs of Taiwans industries in general.Over the past 30 years its R&D programs have played a keyrole in the birth and the rise of many of Taiwans technology-intensive industries such as semiconductors, PCs, optoelec-tronics, wireless communications, displays, advancedmaterials, and chemicals through timely technology transfersand spin-offs.

Today, ITRI is a 6,000-person organization with an annualbudget of about US$475 million, split roughly 50/50 betweengovernment-sponsored R&D programs and commercial con-tract services. Information and communications technologiesare by far the main focus of its R&D activities, accounting formore than 50% in overall resource allocation. Managementwise, ITRI focuses on real industrial impact and is very outputoriented. In each year it would license about 350 new tech-nologies to over 500 companies. These licensing activities arebacked up by an annual granting of around 1,000 patents.

SURVEYING THE NANOTECHNOLOGY LANDSCAPEFrom an industrialization-focused mindset, we see the overalllandscape of nanotechnology as being composed of threedistinctive zones: long-term grand visions, immediate applica-tions, and strategic industry applications. Each has its ownunique characteristics and should be approached differently.

Zone 1: Long-Term Grand VisionsThese are the most popular nanotechnology research topics oftodaylike putting things together molecule by molecule,understanding and mimicking how nature builds things, try-ing to shrink macroworld machineries to the nanometer scaleand do amazing things with them, building brand new comput-ing paradigms, and developing a wide variety of ultra-precisiondrug delivery technologies. Epochal changes are envisioned.Things short of being revolutionary need not apply here.

These revolutionary research topics represent, of course, thefinest of human ingenuity and aspirations, and one day theymay indeed become totally transformational. However, thatone day is most likely 15 to 20 years away. Nanotechnology isnot going to wait that long to get off the starting blocks. Myriadless epochal applications are already proliferating today, and

45 IEEE CIRCUITS & DEVICES MAGAZINE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2004

concrete developmental plans formajor nanotechnology-basedproducts across a wide range oftechnology-intensive industries,complete with firm performancetargets and road maps, arealready being devised andlaunched at many leading corpo-rations and institutions. Accord-ing to authoritative projectionsin both United States and Japan,the world nanotechnology mar-ket size will grow to approxi-mately US$1trillion dollarsannually within the next 10 to15 years. That means if one is tofocus solely on the revolutionaryapplications of zone 1, one is making plans to skip the first sev-eral trillions dollars worth of nanotechnology market values.

Does that mean these types of nanotechnology research arenot worth pursuing? Not at all. Real applications here may beiffy and will take a long time to emerge from the laboratories,but the brand new technological competencies developed inthe pursuit of these applications will be highly significant.They may very well become highly useful long before theintended applications are to be spotted anywhere close to themarketplace.

Zone 2: Immediate ApplicationsOn the extreme opposite end of the nanotechnology landscapeare the much more mundane applications in the not verytechnology-intensive traditional industries. Here, advancesare more material driven and incremental in nature. A largenumber of new products created through mere changes incoating constitutions, surface properties, material composi-tions, simple alterations of manufacturing processes, and awide array of smart and immediate applications of nanotech-nology-based materials and techniques will be coming to themarketplace not in a few years, but right now.

R&D here is totally application driven. Entry barriers arelow. Anybody, in fact, can do it. Opportunities for innovationare limitless. Numbers and speed are the important assets inthis kind of competition. For national programs, the thingsto do are to enable as many entrants as possible so that theycan join the chase as fast as possible (while cautioning themto always look out for things like market viability and costeffectiveness, so that they wont lose their shirts in theeuphoria). Successfully commercialized nanotechnologyproducts in the next three to four years will be dominated bythese nonrevolutionary applications. Substantial industriessuch as textiles, metals and alloys, plastics and polymers, spe-cialty chemicals, pigments and paints, and papers will beaffected in fundamental ways.

Returns on R&D investment here will be immediate, pro-vided the products are indeed differentiating and market-viable, not just nano for nanos sake. No national-level

nanotechnology program canafford to overlook these incre-mental opportunities. Its near-term nature is, of course, alsoits main weakness. Concentrat-ing ones R&D resources herewould be aiming far too low.

Zone 3: Strategic IndustryApplications

The most significant nanotech-nology opportunities for thenext 10 to 15 years will befound here. These are applica-tions driven already by theexponential forces of Mooreslaw or some other named or

unnamed laws that might be as fast or faster. These are thetechnologies of semiconductors, displays, data storage, opto-electronics, photonics, and communications. For these appli-cations, nanotechnology will be like adding fuel to the fire.Together with nanotechnology-enabled new materials, themore manufacturing-driven portions of the bio- and pharma-ceutical technologies and emerging energy storage and effi-ciency technologies, this is the one part of the overallnanotechnology landscape where the most riches will be themost vigorously contested for.

A sense of why this is the most important nanotechnologysegment for the next 10 to 15 years can be taken from thenanotechnology market sizes projections done by theJapanese Keidenren (all industry association) in its whitepaper on nanotechnologyN Plan 21. Total world market sizefor nanotechnology was projected by N Plan 21 to reach 10trillion yen annually by 2005 and 133 trillion yen by 2010(roughly consistent with U.S. governments official projec-tionUS$1 trillion in the next 10 to 15 years), a 13-timeexpansion. What stood out was, in those five years, projectedworld market size for nanotechnology-based information andelectronics products were projected to grow from 2.7 trillionto 67 trillion yen (about half of the total nanotechnology mar-ket size)a 25-time expansion. That means the five-yearhypergrowth period for nanotechnology between 2005 and2010 will be dominated by the advances in the electronics andinformation sectors.

R&D in this zone will run on picking the right productand technology targets, setting aggressive performance goals,and constantly watching what everybody else are doing. Com-petition will be as fierce as they come, and everybody will beon the lookout for collaborations and alliances. Many deviceand process technologies will be looking for material tech-nologies to support advances, and many material technolo-gies will be looking for device and process technologies forapplication outlets.

ITRIS 20/60/20 APPROACHBased on this three-zone analysis, ITRI has formulated its

46 IEEE CIRCUITS & DEVICES MAGAZINE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2004

Never was an R&D topic sovigorously pursued by all of

the technologically significanteconomies of the world, andthere can be little doubt thatthe coming nanotechnology

battles in the globalmarketplace will be some

of the fiercest ever.

nanotechnology program with a 20/60/20 structure to maxi-mize the combined productivity of its overall R&D efforts.

20-Plus ProgramsApproximately 20% of overall program resources will go tozone 2 immediate applications, mostly in traditional indus-tries. ITRIs approach is to position itself as a catalyzer. Theidea is to induce many dollars of private sector R&D invest-ment for every dollar of ITRI expenditure. Figure 1 summa-rizes this approach. Basically, ITRI will focus on thedevelopment of relevant competencies listed in the middle col-umn, using what we targeted as the flagship (major) applica-tions as vehicles for development. At the same time,industry-specific nanotechnology consortia led by ITRI wouldconceptualize and disseminate a continuous stream of nan-otechnology-enabled product ideas (examples given in theright-hand column) to be developed by our industry partnersas early as possible. To complement this effort, ITRI has alsofounded a Nanopowder Service Center to provide the wide vari-ety of building block materials and associated services neededfor expedient product development by our industry customers.

60 ProgramsApproximately 60% of overall program resources will go tozone 3 strategic industry applications. ITRI itself will undertakethe bulk of the research work here, with timely industry partici-pation and academic collaboration, both domestically and inter-nationally. More than half of the R&D resources for the 60

programs will be concentrated on the development of five focal-point applications (descriptions of these will be given later).Goal setting is a crucial part of planning here. Not setting theright kind of goals would risk the program being orders of mag-nitude behind competing offerings from elsewhere.

Zone 3 will be especially meaningful to the smallereconomies that are excellent in technology-based manufactur-ing. This is where we could play even up with the largernations. For ITRI, how to provide convincing R&D leadershipso that we may compel Taiwans strong industries to partnerearly with us to compete for a place in the global leadershippack with each of the technologies we have selected for devel-opment would be the most crucial test.

20-Minus ProgramsApproximately 20% of overall program resources will go tofrontier research. This part of the program will be planned andmanaged according to competencies, not applications. Wedont believe meaningful research programs can be totally free.At the end of the day, they can have only two kinds of valueseither it leads to new applications, or it builds up new compe-tencies. For applications that are projected to arrive only in thevery long term, managing to ensure that competencies wouldindeed happen is by far the more important task, whether theintended applications will materialize or not.

For 20-minus research, defining and selecting relevantcompetencies to develop, building new-culture frontierresearch clusters, raising a continuous stream of world-class

47 IEEE CIRCUITS & DEVICES MAGAZINE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2004

1. ITRI as the catalyzer of nanotechnology applications for Taiwans traditional industries.

Industrial Sectors

Textiles and FibersIndustry

Plastics Industry

Paints/Pigments/Coating Industry

ConstructionIndustry

Paper Industry

Metals and AlloysIndustry

Chemical Industry

Nano Powder, SurfaceTreatment, Dispersion, etc.

Nano-Functionalization

Porous Nano-Structures

Nano Interface Processing

Self-Assembly

Nano Crystal Lattice Control

Thermal insulation, UV-resistant,bacteria-resistant, high fade-resistant materials

High strength, bacteria-resistant,abrasion-resistant, electricconducting, low gas-permeation,environmentally friendly packingmaterialsAbrasion-resistant, bacterial/UV-resistant, high-temperature stable,flame retardant, nano colorpaste/ink, high thermal-conducting

Innovative Products

Self-cleaning, thermal insulating,anti-fog

Food preservation bags, high qualityprinting papers, high-stiffness films

High strength steel aluminum alloys,abrasion-resisting surface treatment

Nano catalysts, sensors, highthermal conducting materials, glasscoatings

Core Technologies

PIs (principal investigators),and linking the clusters tightlywith our 60 and 20-plus teamsfor fast exploitation of frontierresearch advances are the key tosuccess.

FOCAL POINTSITRIs nanotechnology programconsists of ten major thrustareas. At the base is our nanoma-terial platforms and diagnostic/processing technology research.This platform in turn supports a number of industry-facingapplications including nanoelectronics, multiscale packaging,advanced displays, nanophotonics, high-density data storage,energy applications, traditional industry applications, andbiomedical applications.

Considerable R&D resources, especially for the 60 por-tion, will concentrate on five focal-point technologies.These are major device applications that require significantcontributions from the advances in nanomaterial research.By combining device and material R&D with our extensiveindustry ties, we expect to push the leading edge of these

five technologies that, togeth-er with the new competenciesand extended applications pro-duced along the way, will aug-ment Taiwans nanotechnologyexcellence for years to come.They are

nanoelectronics on sili-con.

next generation displays nanophotonic devices high-density data storage micro fuel cells.

Nanoelectronics on SiliconWe believe silicon, and especially CMOS, will be the main plat-form for nanoelectronics for the foreseeable future, and it is onsilicon that we will focus our nanoelectronic research efforts.The device portion of the program currently under developmentincludes magnetoresistive random access memories (MRAM),phase change memories, strained silicon, and other silicon ger-manium (SiGe) devices and, further out, organic bistabledevices, resistance random access memories (R-RAM), and othernext generation devices. Besides devices, materials will be

48 IEEE CIRCUITS & DEVICES MAGAZINE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2004

2. ITRIs MRAM design versus prior art. (a) MRAM cross section and TEM image of MTJ stack. (b) Layout (8 8 array). (c) Current to generate 10Oe by writeline.

0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.450.00.10.20.30.40.50.60.70.80.91.01.11.21.31.41.5

102030405060708090100110120130140150

0

MTJ Stack+

Interconnect

CMOSWordLine

Bit Cell

Via

Via

Via

Via

Via

Via

Via

Via

Via

ViaM4

M3M3

M2

M1 M1 M1

M2

M3

M4 M4 M4 M4

CNT CNTN+N+N+

D S DSilicon Substrate

M1-3 Via M4 BC MTJ M5

MTJBit

Line

DigitLine

GroundLine

Top Electrode

CoFe/NiFe FM

Al2O3 Barrier

CoFe FM

CoFe FM

PtMN AF

Bottom Electrode

Ru

20 nm

Conventional MemoryArea 24 F2

ITRI's New DesignArea 15 F2

(b)

Writ

ing

Curre

nt (m

A)

Perc

enta

ge (%

)

Spacing Between Writeline and MTJ (m)

ITRI's DesignPrior Act

(c)

(a)

Over the past 30 yearsITRIs R&D programs have

played a key role in thebirth and the rise of many

of Taiwans technology-intensive industries.

increasingly the focal point for electronics in the age of nan-otechnology. ITRIs early focus will be on high K gate dielectrics.This effort will be broadened to include other critical nanomate-rial technologies and their integration to future mainstreamintegrated circuit (IC) fabrication processes.

Next Generation DisplaysDisplays are a major area of nanotechnology applications. Webelieve carbon nanotube field emission displays (CNT FEDs),with their simple structures and favorable cost-reductionpotential will be a very strong contender in the fast expandingflat-panel TV market in a few years. Another focal point in thedisplays area is flexible, scrollable displays withmuch-simplified nanotechnology-integratedstructures and low-cost roll-to-roll fabricationprocesses for new, versatile, and cost- effectiveapplications.

Nanophotonic DevicesThe emphasis now is on lasers and other next-generation light sources of various wavelengthsmade with self-assembled or defined-growthquantum dots (QDs) and nanophotonic crystalsthat are capable of reducing the size and cost ofoptical communication components and systemssubstantially. Further down the road, we see QDlasers and photonic crystals as the key buildingblocks to optical circuits.

High-Density Data StorageTaiwan is the worlds leading manufacturers ofDVD systems and disks that will soon be movinginto its nano phase. ITRIs nanotechnology pro-gram will develop advanced optical and magneticdata storage and read/write technologies aimeddelivering a series of products with capacities inthe 100 GB range by 2005 and 1 TB before the endof our six-year national program.

Micro Fuel CellsTruly mobile communications must get rid of notonly the wires but also the cords. We anticipatehigh specific energy, thin, flat, room-temperaturemicro fuel cells to replace lithium batteries as thedominant next-generation energy storage mediafor all untethered 3C (computer, communica-tions, consumer electronics) products, 12 hoursfor notebook computers and 50 days for cellphones, in the next three to four years.

SAMPLE ONGOING ITRINANOTECHNOLOGY

R&D ACTIVITIESThe following are a few examples of the manynanotechnology research projects we are work-ing on as of the middle of 2003.

Magnetoresistive Random Access MemoryMRAM, because of its nonvolatility, nondestructive reading,fast access speed and high density, is a major emerging mem-ory device, and leading semiconductor manufacturers of theworld are racing to deliver their products to the market,including those from Taiwan. ITRIs research work in this areahas led to significant innovations (Figure 2). A novel dual-mask process was developed that avoids the redeposition prob-lem during tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) etching,thereby improving magneto tunnel junctions (MTJ) fabrica-tion. New designs bring significant saving on chip real estateand reduce the writing current by 25 to 75%.

49 IEEE CIRCUITS & DEVICES MAGAZINE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2004

4. Development of quantum-dot lasers (InAs/InGaAs structure).(a) 1.31-m lasing characteristics observed at room temperature.

(b) SEM and TEM images.

3. CNT transistors at ITRI: I-V curves for P- and N-types.

Vg = 5V Vg = 5V

2.5V

0V

P-type N-type

2. 5V

0V0

1

2

3

4

1 0.5 0 0.5 1

Dra

in c

urre

nt, I

d(A)

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

Dra

in c

urre

nt, I

d(A)

Vds (V)

I-V curves.

Si

S DGate

SiO2 CNT

Top-Gate CNTFET

Ti Insulator

TEM

5 600 m cavity lengthjth = 47 A/cm2, HR/HR30% Al Cladding

(a)

SEM

(b)50 nm 50 nm

0

1

2

3

4

5

4-922HR/HR(W,L) = 5m, 0.6mm)CW at T = 20C)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80Current, I, mA

Fron

t Fac

eet O

utpu

t Pow

er, P

, mW

1.291.301.311.321.33Wavelenth (m)

Ith : 1.43 mA

Carbon Nanotube Field Effect TransistorsSignificant advances have also been made with carbon nan-otube field effect transistors (CNTFETs) at ITRI (Figure 3).With the more conventional top-gate design, both P- and N-types have been produced with processes completely compati-ble to existing IC fabrication lines. Their on- and off-currentratios are over 105 for P-type and over 103 for N-type. Measuredtransfer curves indicate that both types are stable in the tem-

perature range of 30250 C. In addition, a novel CNT-gateCNTFET design was also developed with demonstrated ultra-marrow gate lengths and the two crossing CNTs both capableof channel/gate dual functions. These unique characteristicsbrings significant versatility to the design and functionalities ofthese cutting edge devices which may one day form the basis offuture high density, high performance nanoelectronics.

Long Wavelength Quantum Dot LasersQD lasers, with their potential forhigher output power, higher efficien-cies, lower threshold current densities,temperature insensitivity and variablewavelengths, are viewed as an emerg-ing cornerstone photonic technologywith wide applications. ITRI uses epi-taxial methods to grow high qualityInAs/InGaAs QDs and has demonstrat-ed a room temperature, 1.3 m wave-length QD laser with record-lowthreshold currents at 1.43 mA (Figure4). High power output of 150 mW wasalso achieved. The lasing characteris-tics with 45 divergent angle areamong the best the world has record-ed. Furthermore, ITRIs InAs/InGaAsstructure comes with higher mechani-cal strength and better yield than cur-rent designs, while its temperature-insensitivity eliminates the need forthermal controls. Further development

50 IEEE CIRCUITS & DEVICES MAGAZINE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2004

5. Progress in CNT-FED development at ITRI: latest features (size, color, resolution, structure).

6. Carbon-based nonomaterials. (a) Carbon nanocapsules: hollow and filled.(b) Carbon nonospirals: structure (left) and absorption characteristics (right).

April, 20014-in., Mono, 64 256, Diode

December, 2002Panel : 10-in. 240 320 RGB, TriodePitch : 500 m 500 mBrightness ~ 200300 nitsVoltage ~ 150200 V

Va - 1kV

Gated Emitter Arrays

Cross Section of Gated Emitter

Glass

CathodeCNT Dielectric

Gate

(a)

5 nm

10 nm

Carbon Nanocapsules: Hollow

Carbon Nanospirals: Structure

Carbon Nanocapsules: Filled with Tb

UCL

10 m

0 0

5

10

15

20

Ret

urn

Loss

(dB)

3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17Frequency (GHz)

d = Thickness of the Composite Material(b)

Catalyst

20% Carbon Black, d = 1.5 mm20% Carbon Nanotubes,

d=1.7mm

30% Carbon Nanospirals, d=2.8mm

20% Carbon Nanospirals,d = 2.7 mm

20% Carbon Nanospirals,d = 2.7 mm

68.3772

90.0000

96.8377

99.0000

Abso

rptio

n (%

)

work is presently underway for the VCSELdesign.

Carbon NanotubeField Emission Displays

Flat panel displays have been a majorgrowth industry in Taiwan, with worldmarket share now exceeding 35%. CNTFEDs, with their potential for large-size, high resolution, color quality and,above all, its favorable cost-down poten-t ia l due to s impler structures andadvantages in large-area fabrication, isan important emerging technologyespecially for large screen applicationsincluding flat panel televisions. Using athick film process with spun-on CNTpastes, ITRI has produced FED withsteadily improving characteristics, asshown in Figure 5, and is presentlyworking with industrial partners to pro-duce high resolution, full color television prototypes inthe near future. To date, 42 CNT FED-related patents havebeen obtained.

Carbon-Based NanomaterialsSome of the progress we made with carbon-based nanoma-terials are shown in Figure 6. A novel carbon-based nano-scale building block, carbon nanocapsules shown in Figure6(a), has been fabricated with high concentration and puri-ty. The nanocapsules possess high thermal and electric con-ductivities and mechanical strength just like CNT but areconsiderably easier to disperse and are readily water and sol-vent soluble, resulting in much better processability. Thehollow capsules exhibit strong fluorescence in the 390 to560-nm wavelength range with quantum efficiency signifi-cantly higher than that of C60 or CNT. They can also befilled with metallic particles, resulting in excellent magneticproperties. Metal-filled carbon nanocapsules are protectedfrom oxidation, making stable performance possible for var-ious applications. Further research work now concentrateson their functionalization for applications such as elec-trodes in lithium batteries, catalyst support in directmethanol fuel cells, emitters for CNT FEDs, and heat-dissi-pating coatings for electronic components. An alliance withover 20 industrial partners in Taiwan has been formed topursue its various potential applications.

Another interesting carbon-based nanomaterial created in ITRI laboratories is the carbon nanospirals shown in Figure 6(b). Essentially carbon nanowires twisted into spring-like spirals, they exhibit excellent properties for electromag-netic radiation absorption. The frequency-dependentabsorption pattern, up to 15 GHz, can be tuned by the size andcomposition of such spirals.

Nanopore ReactorsAnother topic we are working on is nano-scale space confine-ment and its applications (Figure 7). Polymerization with 2 to10 nm reactors made from MCM-41 nanopores and with appro-priate catalysts can produce linear polymers with ultrahighmolecular weights and strengths. The polyethylene (PE) fiberthus produced at ITRI laboratories have recorded molecularweights greater than 7 million at melting temperatures greaterthan 140 C and a strength suitable for bulletproof applications.By placing different catalysts in the nanopores, molecular-levelblending of two different polymers was demonstrated for, as faras we know, the first time in the world. Figure 7(c) and (d)shows the case of atatic- and syndiotactic-polystyrene (aPS andsPS) blending. These may lead to very interesting applications inquite a number of areas.

SUMMARYAs a small economy that has built its future on manufactur-ing excellence, Taiwan has a big stake in nanotechnology. Onthe one hand, our manufacturing strength makes nanotech-nology a unique opportunity. On the other, it also makesnanotechnology the one R&D battle we can least afford tolose. To come out ahead takes coherent planning and disci-plined actions and, above all, the ability to marry nanotech-nologys creative power to the dynamics of the marketplace.Such will be the challenges facing Taiwans National Nan-otechnology Program and its central R&D forceITRI. Forus, the future is literally now.

Jih Chang Yang is with the Industrial Technology ResearchInstitute (ITRI), Taiwan ROC National NanotechnologyProgram, Taiwan. E-mail: jcyang@itri.org.tw.

51 IEEE CIRCUITS & DEVICES MAGAZINE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2004

7. Space-confirmed polymerization using nanopore reactors. (a) Schematic. (b) Polymerization. (c) Without a nanopore setting, sPS and aPS do not blend

well. (d) Molecular blending in a nanopore setting.

Monomer

Nanopore (210 nm) asa Reactor

Polymer

MCM-41 PE from MCM-41sPS+aPS w/oNanopore

sPS+aPS withNanopore

(a)

(b) (c) (d)

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