[CCoE Notice] ChBE Seminar: Is There Still "Plenty of Room at the Bottom"? An Update on Nanomanufacturing and Where It's Going

[Grayson, Audrey A]

ChBE Dept. Seminar
10:30am-11:30am, Friday, March 28, 2014
Rm W122
Is There Still "Plenty of Room at the Bottom"?
An Update on Nanomanufacturing and Where It's Going
Dr Clifford L Henderson
Georgia Institute of Technology

ABSTRACT: Richard Feynman in his now famous 1959 talk entitled "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom," envisioned a world of atomically precise manufacturing that would fuel advancements in information storage, computing, and other fields, though he had only a few rudimentary concepts of how to achieve such a goal at the time.  Move forward to 2014 where the semiconductor industry routinely manufactures circuit elements that are below 40 nm in size and the data storage industry is poised to manufacture and sell bit patterned media with even smaller elements.  While we have achieved many of the feats Feynman originally envisioned in his original talk, there is still plenty of room at the bottom in 2-D and 3-D geometries that cannot yet be accessed in a manufacturable way.  This talk will present a view of current nanomanufacturing capabilities and will highlight some of our work in developing materials and methods that can allow us to bridge the gap between current manufacturing capabilities and the dream of atomically precise manufacturing.
Underlying much of what we envision as nanomanufacturing for functional devices is the ability to form nanoscale two dimensional and three dimensional structures in various organic and inorganic materials.  For example, all modern electronic devices (e.g. computers, cell phones, tablets, etc.) rely on the use of microprocessors and memory devices that possess device circuit features smaller than 50 nm in size.  The critical and enabling technologies for mass producing such microelectronic  devices are the combination of lithographic materials, processes, and tools used to pattern the nanoscale device elements that constitute the transistor device active layers and the subsequent electrical interconnect layers.  However, continuing to scale such devices down in feature size faces a number of challenges in terms of the materials, tools, and economics of such micro- and nanofabrication technologies.  Solutions to these problems will require new materials and new material processing approaches.  The first part of this talk will review the current state of the art in such nanopatterning technologies and some of the current challenges being faced. The second part of the talk will address how we are applying chemical engineering, materials science, and synthetic chemistry concepts to develop solutions to these challenges.  We will first look at the property changes that occur in materials when they are confined to small geometric form factors (e.g. sub-50 nm wide polymeric photoresist lines), the difficulties these property changes can present, and the opportunities that such nanoscale behavior offers.  We will then look at the role self-assembly may play in the future of nanomanufacturing through the use of block copolymer directed self-assembly techniques.  In particular, the talk will highlight the synergy that is possible when experimental and molecular modeling approaches are combined to attack problems in material and process development at these near molecular length scales.  We will conclude with a quick discussion of the broader applications and opportunities for such nanomanufacturing technologies in other fields including membranes separations and solar energy.



BIO: Dr. Clifford L. Henderson is currently a Professor in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, with additional appointments as an Adjunct Professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech.  Professor Henderson is also currently serving as the Functional Materials Program Director in the CMMI Division at the National Science Foundation.  He received his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering with Highest Honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology and his Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin.  He is an active member of a number of professional societies including the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), The International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE), the American Chemical Society (ACS), and the American Vacuum Society (AVS). He serves in a variety of national leadership roles including being Past Chair of the Materials Engineering and Sciences Division, the current Chair of the Student Chapters Committee, and a member of the Executive Board of the Programming Committee of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He has received numerous awards for his work including an NSF CAREER Award, the inaugural Intel/STC Outstanding Lithography Researcher Award in 2012, and being named a SPIE Fellow in 2010 for his many years of work on issues related to lithography simulation, photoresist materials, and patterning processes.  Professor Henderson's research group currently focuses on problems at the intersection of organic and polymeric materials science, micro- and nanofabrication materials and processes, and thin film science and technology in a variety of application areas for advanced nanostructured materials including electronics, energy, and biotechnology.  He has authored more than 200 publications and given more than 200 presentations around the world on topics related to his research interests.





Thank you,
Nicolette Solano
Administrative Assistant to Chairman Michael Harold, Ph.D.
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Cullen College of Engineering, room S222 (mailcode 4004)
University Of Houston
(713) 743-4304
http://www.chee.uh.edu/


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