Nanotechnology in Korea

GENERALITY ABOUT NANOTECHNOLOGY

Nano is a Greek prefix that means a billion times smaller. A nanometer is equivalent to a million times fewer than a millimeter or 0.000000001 meter.

Nanotechnologies aim to study, produce and manipulate objects and materials at the nanometer scale.

There are several different fields of application of nanotechnologies: car industries, aeronautics, electronic and communication industries, as well as chemical industries, materials, chemistry, biotechnologies and health care. Some other fields use nanotechnologies as well, like factories and energy. Finally, we also use nanotechnologies in space fields and in environment area.

South Korea is the fourth country in the world in the nanotechnologies area, after the USA, Japan and Germany. That’s explained by the important investment done by the government and the private sector to this field and by the well-done marketing of technology. This year, the South-Korean government invested nearly 221.6 millions euros in this area.

CHRONOLOGY OF NANOTECHNOLOGY

1948 : Invention of the transistor, a mechanism with three electrodes.
1953 : First picture of an atom obtained by the ionic microscopy.
1959 : Richard P. Feynman announces the symbolic birth of the “nanoworld”.
1965 : Gordon Moore, co-founder of the society Intel, says that the size of the transistors, by unit of silicium surface area, will be reduced of half every eighteen month.
1981 : The Scanning Tunnelling Microscope (STM) is created by Gerd Bining and Heinrich Rohrer, from the IBM laboratory of Zurich, to “see” the shape of the atoms. The two inventors will obtain The Nobel Price of physics in 1986.
1989 : Discovery of the “fullerenes” ( tiny molecules of pure carbon composed of 60 atoms) by Richard Smalley, Robert Curl and Harold Kroto.
1990: a researcher of IBM , Donald Eigler succeeds , with a STM , in moving one to one , like lego’s cube , 35 atoms of xenon and in drawing initials of IBM using microscope ultrafine point like a pair of pliers.
1991: put a prominent of de carbon nanotube by the japanese physicist, Sumio Ijima.
1993: The first nanoexperience realized by Donald Eigler, who gathers 48 atoms of fer in an electric drum.
1996 : the first electronic unimolecular transistor with a carbon nanotube
The spectacular developpement of nanotechnologies in the last years allows to consider useful and ambitious projects. In 2010, we estimate that the half of medicines will be matter for nanotechnologies. In 2012, the market of nanotechnologies will represent a market of 1000 milliards of dollars . In 2015, we could put all the National library of France on a puce.

Glossary

Nanotube : Particular crystalline structure, with a tubular shape, hollow and close, composed of atoms steadily disposed in pentagons, hexagons and/or heptagons, obtained with some materials, carbon in particular.
Electrode : Conductor element, which consist of two conductor blades or blocks connected to each border of connection of the appliance.
Transistor : Electronic active constituent which is fundamental in electronics, mainly used as commanded switch and for the amplification, but also to stabilize a tension or to modulate a signal…
Scanning Tunnelling Microscope (STM) : Close field microscope which uses a quantum phenomenon, the tunnelling effect, to determine the morphology and the density of electronic states of conductor or half-conductor surfacing areas with a space resolution which can be equal or smaller than the size of the atoms.