Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:

My name is Eugene Wong and I am the Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation for Engineering. I am pleased to have the opportunity to testify before you on the very great opportunities that are presented to us in the area of nanoscale science and technology.

What is nanoscale?

One nanometer is one billionth of a meter. It is a magical point on the scale of length, for this is the point where the smallest man-made devices meet the atoms and molecules of the natural world. To get an idea of the scale, we can compare the lengths of some familiar things. The diameter of an atom is about one quarter of a nanometer. The diameter of human hair is about 10,000 nanometers. The smallest experimental electronic devices that have been made are about ten nanometers in their smallest dimension. The smallest devices on commercially available chips are about 200 nanometers. Protein molecules, which are so critical to living things, are several nanometers in size. Nanoscale refers to dimensions that vary from a fraction of a nanometer to tens of nanometers.

Figure 1 provides a good illustration of the scale. This is a scanning tunneling microscope image of a pyramid of germanium atoms on top of a silicon surface. The pyramid is ten nanometers across at the base, and it is actually only 1.5 nanometer tall. Each round-looking object in the image is actually an individual germanium atom. The pyramid obtained by Stanley Williams at the Hewlett-Packard Labs was formed in just a few seconds all by itself via a process called self-assembly, which is illustrated in Figure 2.

Over the last twenty years, a series of instruments were invented that now allow us to see, manipulate, and control objects at nanoscale. They are the eyes, fingers and tweezers of the nanoscale world. With these tools, a new world of discovery and invention has been created. This is the world of nanoscale science and technology.

What is new?

Nanoscale phenomena and objects have been around for some time. Catalysts, for example, are mostly nanoscale particles, and catalysis is a nanoscale phenomenon. Photography is another example of nanoscale technology. Most of molecular biology works at nanoscale. What is new and different now is the degree of understanding and deliberate control and precision that the new nanoscale techniques afford. Instead of discovering new phenomena by accident or by random search, we can look for them systematically. Instead of finding nanoscale particles and structures with good properties through serendipity, we now seek to design them to order. Furthermore, novel structures and fundamentally new properties and processes can be obtained. We are witnessing an explosion of revolutionary discoveries at nanoscale.

Why are nanoscale phenomena and techniques so important?

First, the small size itself is of great potential benefit. The creation of modern information technology, for example, was made possible by systematically reducing the size of devices on a chip, thereby increasing the processing capability of a single chip. Composites are mixtures of particles of different types. Because nanoscale particles have large surface-to-volume ratios, composites made of nanoscale particles can better retain the best properties of their constituents.

Second, it is important to be able to control and alter nanoscale structures of materials. By so doing, one can often improve the properties of materials without changing their chemical composition. That is, the same molecules are present, but their physical arrangement is changed. Second, with the ability to control and alter nanoscale structures of materials we can often improve or profoundly change the properties and phenomena in materials without changing their chemical composition. That is, the same molecules are present, but their physical arrangement is changed. Furthermore, high performance devices can be built that were not possible before.

Third, much of molecular biology works at nanoscale. By using the techniques of nanoscale science in biology, we gain two great advantages, a deeper understanding of how nature works and ways to improve upon nature. Self-assembly, for example, is an important biological phenomenon. Understanding it affords the possibility of making inorganic things through self-assembly, as we have already seen in the germanium/silicon example in Figure 2. At the same time, applying the new found techniques of manipulating molecules affords the possibility for gene and drug delivery by directly moving molecules into cells.

Multi-scale assembly and integration are critical to all functional systems, living and man-made. The lessons of microelectronics and biology are different, yet both powerful. The lesson from electronics is a top-down design that dramatically limits the increase in complexity when density of devices and interconnection increases. The lesson of biology is the power of self-assembly. Nanoscale science and technology hold the promise of combining the best of both, working both top-down and bottom-up, in producing systems of unprecedented power and elegant simplicity.

What are the applications?

The applications of nanoscale science and technology will lead to breakthroughs in information technology, advanced manufacturing, medicine and health, environment and energy, and national security. Some of these are as follows:

Materials and Manufacturing

Several possibilities for making precisely engineered materials through nanotechnology are immediate. These include new materials with vastly improved strength and wear characteristics, better catalysts for the chemical industry, new drugs and food products, and new materials for electronics and information technology.

Electronics

Electronics will be profoundly changed by nanotechnology in many ways. The invention of integrated circuits in the early sixties brought forth a technology that has proved to be the most scalable ever invented. The basic concept of "printing" circuits on a silicon base has continued to work as the density of devices increased from a few transistors on a chip to ten million transistors on a chip. However, the physical limits of the technology will soon be reached, and a new world of nanoelectronics will need to be invented.

The first commercial nanoscale products are already in production. A magnetic read-head head (which reads information from a hard disk) of nanoscale dimensions based on the GMR (giant magneto-resistance) principle is on the market and promises to revolutionize the computer storage market. Prototypes of memory chips using an advanced version of GMR (TMR – tunneling magneto-resistance) have also been designed and fabricated. Figure 3 shows that the future magnetic random access memory chips will outperform by orders of magnitude the memory (~ 1000), response time (~ 100000), and size (~ 1/10) the chip builtd with the current technology in a bussinessbusiness of $100B/year.

The basic techniques of microelectronics are being extended to a great variety of non-electronic applications. These include gene sequencing, DNA matching, combinatorial chemistry, micro-mechanical devices, optical and sensor chips, and hybrids involving electronics with any combination of the above. In all these applications, the techniques of nanotechnology are indispensable. For example, how does one place different chemicals in a million cells on a chip? The answer will have to come from nanotechnology.

Medicine and Health

Nanotechnology is so intimately asociatedassociated with molecular biology that its potential application in this area is all pervasive. We have already mentioned better drug design and better drug and gene delivery. We have also discussed chip technology in biological and medical applications. Hybrid systems involving both living and artificial components such as synthetic tissues and organs for placement in cells are yet another possibility.

Biotechnology and Agriculture

The molecular building blocks of life - proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, carbohydrates and their non-biological mimics - are examples of materials that possess unique properties determined by their size, folding and patterns at the nanoscale. ImmitationImitation of biological systems provides a major area of research in several disciplines. For example, the active area of bio-mimetic chemistry is based on this approach.

Nanotechnology can be applied for improving animal and plant genetics, better control of the growing processes and use of chemicals for agriculture. Nanofabrication of detector arrays provides the potential to do thousands of experiments for simultaneous gene charaterizationcharacterization and selection with very small amounts of material. Figure 4 is of a chip with 6400 nanodots, each containing a small amount of a different gene in the yeast genome - and each representing a nanodetector capable of determining the amount of that gene being expressed by the yeast. The same experiment can now be performed with tens of thousands of genes, and by comparing the gene expression, scientists can discover which few genes are being activated or inhibited during growing process or disease. With the prospect of having in hand complete genome sequences, including the model plants, this information is critical to determine what genes will determine an improved production and when a plant is exposed to salt or drought stress. The application of this technology to agriculture has only begun to be appreciated. The nano-chip will allow the genes to be completely characterized molecule by molecule in just a few hours. Five years ago this same experiment would have taken dozens of scientists years to complete.

Automotive industry

Various applications are nanoparticle reinforced polymers and tires, resistant paintings, fire-resistnatresistant plastics, and increased efficiency of combustion. Figure 5 shows A ‘nano’ network of polymer strings formed between nanoparticles that increases the material strength and its melting temperature. Several companies are developing practical synthesis and manufacturing technologies to enable the use of new high-performance, low-weight "nanocomposite" materials in automobiles. Proposed applications would save 1.5 billion liters of gasoline over the life of one year's production of vehicles and reduce related carbon dioxide emissions by more than 5 billion kilograms.

Energy technologies

New types of batteries, artificial photosynthesis for clean energy, quantum solar cells, safe storage of hydrogen for use as a clean fuel and savings uingusing energy efficient processes are a few of the potential applications.

Environment

Selective membranes that can filter contaminants, nanostructured traps for removing pollutants from industrial effluents, improved control emissions from a wide range of sources, understanding the effects of nanoscale processes in environment on biodiversity and health, and maintaining industrial sustainability by significant reduction of materials and energy use, are only a few of the oportunitiesopportunities.

National Security

Detectors and detoxifiers of chemical and biological agents, continued information dominance, nanostructured electronics, camouflage materials, light and self-reparingrepairing textiles, use of uninhabited combat vehicles and miniaturized surveillance systems are are several of critical defense applications that will depend on nanotechnology. Figure 6 illustrates the development of new, economic detectors based on assembling of nanoparticles coated with DNA when the targeted bio-agent is present. Such detection was not possible before in the field.

Research Opportunities

The following areas of investigation were identified during a workshop convened by the Interagency Working Group on Nanoscale Science and Technology and held during January 1999:

Long-term nano science and engineering research that will lead to fundamental understanding and to discoveries of novel phenomena, processes, experimental and simulation tools for nanotechnology.

Synthesis and processing "by design" of engineered, nanometer-size, material building blocks and system components, fully exploiting self organization, patter ning and other advanced concepts. Accelerate the application of multiscale modeling and high-performance computation to the prediction of nanostructured properties and phenomena and materials by design

Nanodevice concepts and system architecture research to best exploit their properties in operational systems, and combining building-up of molecular structures with ultraminiaturization.

Application of nanostructured materials and systems to manufacturing, power systems, energy, environment, national security, and health. Develop core enabling technologies such as fundamental molecular scale measurement and manipulation tools and standard methods, materials, and data that will be applied to many commercial sectors;

Educate and train a new generation of skilled workers in the multidisciplinary perspectives necessary for rapid progress in nanotechnology;

The Federal Role, Past and Future

Nanoscale science and technology were born of basic research, much of it funded through federal support. The National Science Foundation has a long history of support for research into the fundamental physical, chemical and materials properties of nanometer-scale systems. This support has culminated in Nobel prizes in 1996 to Robert Curl, Richard Smalley and Harold Kroto for discovery of buckyballs (C60) and in 1998 to Robert Laughlin, Horst Störmer and Daniel Tsui for the discovery and explanation of the fractional quantum Hall effect.

The National Science Foundation also funds the National Nanofbrication User Network (NNUN) the primary infrastructure for chip-level nano-fabrication research. Through its recent initiatives "Functional Nanostructures,""XYZ on a Chip" and "Nanoscale Biotechnology," it is spearheading nanoscale technology activities in these important areas.

NSF has also played a lead role in coordinating interagency efforts in this area. Dr. M.C. Roco of NSF chairs the Interagency Working Group on Nanoscale Science and Technology, which operates under the auspices of the National Science and Technology Council through its Committee on Technology.

Despite its great commercial promise, the field of nanoscale science and technology cannot advance without federal support and cannot fulfill its promise in a timely way without a substantial increase in federal funding. This is so because so much of the work that is needed is fundamental research. Furthermore, even the work with targeted applications has a long lead-time. In the current competitive climate private sector investment will fall far short of what is needed and a strong federal role will be necessary for the field to advance, and to advance in a timely way.

The current NSF funding is this area is approximately $90 million a year and the total funding among all agencies for FY’99 is estimated to be $240 million.

Through its role in funding research, NSF will also achieve two additional major objectives. First, the funding will catalyze private spending from industry. Second, because nearly all of NSF’s funding goes to universities and because of NSF’s emphasis on the integration of education with research, education in this area will benefit. Indeed, without the NSF role, it is unlikely that the trained manpower needed for this field will be available.

Nanoscale science and technology represent a major opportunity for the nation. It is a strategic area for NSF and we seek your encouragement and support.