AVS 62nd International Symposium & Exhibition
    MEMS and NEMS Wednesday Sessions
       Session MN+AM-WeM

Invited Paper MN+AM-WeM1
The Why, the What and the How of Nanomanufacturing

Wednesday, October 21, 2015, 8:00 am, Room 211A

Session: Emerging Materials & Fabrication Technologies toward Scalable & Additive Nanomanufacturing I
Presenter: Khershed Cooper, National Science Foundation (NSF)
Correspondent: Click to Email
In 2010, at the conclusion of the review of the NNI, PCAST recommended greater emphasis on commercialization by doubling investment of the Federal Government in nanomanufacturing R&D. Federal agencies responded in various ways. The NNI Signature Initiative: Sustainable Nanomanufacturing was announced, OSD’s MURI topic call included nanomanufacturing as a high-priority theme, and NSF announced the Scalable Nanomanufacturing solicitation. The private sector also responded to the need for nanotechnology commercialization through interest groups such as the NanoBusiness Alliance and, as the Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation multiply, nanoscience and nanotechnology appear to play an increasing important role. This is the ‘why’ of nanomanufacturing. Nanomanufacturing is the fabrication of nano-scale building-blocks, their assembly into higher-order structures and the integration of these into larger scale systems such that both heterogeneity and complexity are achievable with manipulation and control at the nano-scale. R&D activities address the nanomanufacturing value chain and manufacturability challenges such as scale-up and cost. This is the ‘what’ of nanomanufacturing. This talk will discuss these aspects of nanomanufacturing and ‘how’ the nanomanufacturing programs (NM, SNM, NSEC, NERC, SBIR) at NSF are meeting these challenges through support of basic and applied research involving novel ideas. Proposed ideas encompass a wide range of materials, processes and applications and are usually based on strong fundamental foundations. Research outputs are nanomanufacturing fundamentals that will help overcome barriers to large-scale, high quality production of nano-enabled products for the benefit of society.