ABOVE: The computer-controlled desktop nanofactory (top figure) uses nanoscale machinery (lower right) to manufacture a molecularly precise 3-D product — a high performance water filter — out of nanoblocks made using bottom-up techniques, in this case synthesized from 2-layer silsesquioxane deriviatives (lower left). This near-future image envisions someone working on the surface of the moon.
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In May, 2005, Chris Phoenix, CRN's Director of Research, working in cooperation with Tihamer Toth-Fejel, an engineer employed by General Dynamics, presented a commissioned report to NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts, titled "Large-Product General-Purpose Design and Manufacturing Using Nanoscale Modules."
The goal of molecular manufacturing is to build engineerable high-performance products of all sizes, rapidly and inexpensively, with nanoscale features and atomic precision. Molecular manufacturing is the only branch of nanotechnology that intends to combine kilogram-scale products, atomic precision, and engineered programmable structure at all scales. It is no coincidence that molecular manufacturing has gone far beyond other branches of nanotechnology in investigating productive nanosystems, because high-performance nanoscale manufacturing systems are the only way that these goals can be achieved. Building such a product appears to require direct computer control of very small operations. In other words, it needs programmable manufacturing systems capable of acting at the nanoscale.The core of this project is planar assembly: the construction of products by deposition of functional blocks one layer at a time. Planar assembly is a new development in molecular manufacturing theory. It is based on the realization that sub-micron nano-featured blocks are quite convenient for product design as well as manipulation within the nanofactory construction components, and can be deposited quite quickly due to favorable scaling laws. The development of planar assembly theory, combined with recent advances in molecular fabrication and synthesis, indicate that it may be time to start a targeted program to develop molecular manufacturing.
You can download a free PDF of this paper from CRN's website.
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