Nanofabrication / nanomanufacturing
Nanofabrication is the essential bridge between the discoveries of the nanosciences and real-world nanotechnology products.
Partly based on: NanoFabNet, 2021, NanoFabNet, 2021a, https://nanofabnet.eu/ and https://susnanofab.eu/
© 2021 by NanoFabNet and SUSNANOFAB
Nanofabrication has the potential to address major socio-economic challenges, from better and affordable health care to cleaner energy and transports, improved consumer goods and higher living standards. It encompasses many processes from the design, manipulation and control of matter at the nanoscale to the manufacture of nanoscale materials, nanostructures, components, devices and complex systems that exploit the unique physical and chemical phenomena that occur at these smaller scales, such as quantum and surface effects. The dimensional scale for nanofabrication is typically 1 to 100 nm. It is usually at this sub-micron scale that unusual or improved material behaviour is observed, which can be exploited for production of multifunctional devices with unique properties for a vast range of applications, thus having a profound impact on a multitude of industrial sectors. The vast potential of nanofabrication is undeniable, and it must be optimized.
The international standard ISO/TS 80004-8 Nanotechnologies -Vocabulary - Part 8: Nanomanufacturing processes makes an inventory of the different processes, which demonstrates the great diversity of existing approaches, each with their own specificities. The ISO/TS 80004-8 differentiates also between the terms “nanofabrication” and “nanomanufacturing” by arguing that nanomanufacturing encompasses a broader range of processes than does nanofabrication, as it takes into account all nanofabrication techniques, as well as techniques associated with materials processing and chemical synthesis. In the following, however, the terms nanofabrication and nanomanufacturing will be used interchangeably.
Figure 1. Representation of the nanofabrication approaches: “top-down” versus “bottom-up” (Rawat, 2015).
To produce nanoscale structures via nanofabrication approaches, two main routes can be taken (see Figure 1). A “top-down” approach, which starts from micro-systems and miniaturises them to a nanoscale (as a carver would go from a block of stone to its final sculpture), whereas a “bottom-up” approach starts from atoms or molecular blocks to build nano-scale structures (as a mason would build a wall). The bottom-up approach is, for the moment, less common but allows more control over the nanoparticles production.
Sustainable nanofabrication
As nanofabrication and sustainability are quite young fields, the cross-over between them is even more recent. By searching both combined terms with an online search engine, the first results found are for European projects such as SusNanoFab and NanoFabNet showing that this subject is particularly on the rise. The main issues of sustainable nanofabrication were highlighted by the stakeholders during the 1st NanoFabNet Development Workshop (DW), by ranking categories on their importance on this subject. The categories considered to be of high importance are:
- metrology/characterisation in association with the production processes
- sustainability, training and standardisation
Common Challenges & Opportunities in sustainable Nanofabrication identified by NanoFabNet A state of the art is proposed to present the different issues involved in sustainable nanofabrication (standardisation, life cycle sustainability and risk assessment, education/skills and infrastructures).
Training
SUSNANOFAB Training: Initiation to nano-enabled composites parts through the presentation of an industrial use case This session introduces the capability to provide high added-value functionalities to composite parts thanks to nanotechnologies.
Additional SUSNANOFAB trainings:
- Part 1: Nanofabrication technics to create added value properties to plastic parts – An initiation to micro/nano surfaces texturing and eco-design
- Part 2: Metals nanostructuration by Severe Plastic Deformation Techniques
Standardisation
Challenges & Opportunities of Validating, Harmonising & Standardising industrial-scale Nanofabrication Based on an in-depth desk analysis of scientific literature and the collection of key stakeholders’ opinions, a detailed analysis of the challenges & opportunities posed by any validation, harmonisation and standardisation efforts in sustainable nanofabrication has been carried out.
Nanofabrication Competence Map: Infrastructures, Knowledge & Skills - Proposal for a new Nanofabrication Taxonomy A completely new concept of generic instrument names together with categorisation based on the existing ISO standard is proposed. This ISO standard needed to be heavily modified and extended in order to cover all needs of current academic cleanroom nanofabrication centres.
References
- NanoFabNet, 2021: ‘NanoFabNet. Common Challenges & Opportunities in sustainable Nanofabrication. Report 2021. https://acumenist.com/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/AcumenIST-Press/20210803_NanoFabNet_Report_Common-Challenges-of-sustainable-Nanofabrication.pdf.
- NanoFabNet, 2021a: ‘NanoFabNet. Challenges & Opportunities of Validating, Harmonising & Standardising industrial-scale Nanofabrication. Report 2021. https://acumenist.com/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/AcumenIST-Press/20210701_NanoFabNet_Report_Challenges-and-Opportunities-of-Validating-Nanofabrication.pdf.
- Rawat, 2015: Rawat, R.S. Dense Plasma Focus – From Alternative Fusion Source to Versatile High Energy Density Plasma Source for Plasma Nanotechnology. J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 2015, 591, 012021. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/591/1/012021.