Microscale and

Nanoscale Systems

INTRODUCTION
Origins of Nanotechnology
New

 John Dalton - 1803 Ernest Rutherford

(1908)
 J J Thompson (1908) Niels Bohr (1915)
 Present model
 Nanotechnology
The Technology of Small Things
 The science, engineering and
technology related to the
understanding and control of
matter at the length scale of
Richard Feynman (1959)
 Manipulating and controlling
things on a small scale
 Miniaturization
 Rearranging the atoms

approximately 1-100 nm.

 Research and development of
materials, devices and systems
that have novel properties and
functions due to their nanoscale
dimensions
 The bridge between macroscale Eric Drexler (1981)
and nanoscale is often
understanding microscale “Development of the ability to
design protein molecules will
phenomena open a path to the fabrication of
devices to complex atomic
specifications”
What is Nanoscale Science? 5

 The study of objects and phenomena at a

very small scale, roughly 1 to 100 nanometers
(nm)
 10 hydrogen atoms lined up measure about 1 nm
 A grain of sand is 1 million nm, or 1 millimeter,
wide
 An emerging, interdisciplinary science
involving
 Physics
 Chemistry
 Biology
 Engineering
 Materials Science
 Recent

Robert F. Curl Jr. Richard E. Smalley

Sir Harold W. Kroto

Nobel Prize 1996 – work on Carbon Nanotubes

Nanotechnology
Objective and Theme

 Nanotechnology aims at
making materials and
processes better by re-
engineering the
fundamental building
blocks of matter.
 Diamond
 The central theme of
nanotechnology is
improvements or
adaptation of materials by
reconfiguring the atoms.

 Protein
Molecular Gears
 Size effects
 10

Using Light to See

• The naked eye can see to about 20 microns
• A human hair is about 50-100 microns thick
• Light microscopes let us see to about 1 micron
• Bounce light off of surfaces to create images

to see red blood cells

Light microscope (400x)
(magnification up to 1000x)

Sources: http://www.cambridge.edu.au/education/PracticeITBook2/Microscope.jpg
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/760000/images/_764022_red_blood_cells300.jpg
Size:
1m,10 cm,1 cm,100m,10m
1m, 100nm, 10nm,1nm
Microscale and Nanoscale
Energy Transport
 The modern trends in micro-electronics have introduced the
quest for miniaturization of all electro-mechanical systems

 This has become possible due to the advent of MEMS/NEMS

and Nanotechnology

 One of the major problems associated with miniaturization is

the management of high heat fluxes, due to the high heat
generation rates of devices and the small surface areas
available for dissipation

 The importance of dealing with heat transfer in small scale

systems, during fabrication and operation, and the attractive
options of heat removal by integrated heat sinks in devices
have opened up a new avenue in energy transport – Microscale
Heat Transfer.

 The present-day applications of microscale and nanoscale

heat transfer are more focused towards micro-electronics, but
are not limited to that.
Effect of Domain Size
 Physical effects do not  Different space and time
scales will be required to
scale uniformly represent various effects in
an analysis in a miniature
system
 The influence of the  Similarly, different levels of
domain of analysis, or the sophistication will be
extent of the medium, on required to study physical
phenomena experimentally
thermophysical  The classical engineering
phenomena has been of definitions of
interest to scientists for thermophysical properties
do not consider the domain
the past four centuries. size (example: viscosity,
thermal conductivity,
strength related properties).
Size Effect
 The ratio of surface atoms to interior atoms
increase drastically when a macroscopic
structure is cut down into small units.
 The total surface energy increases with the
overall surface area.
 Centimeter size to nanometer size: surface
area and surface energy increase by
around 7 orders of magnitude.
 1 cm3 of iron: surface atoms 10-5%
 When divided into smaller cubes of 10 nm
edge, the percentage of surface atoms
increase to 10%
 Nanostructured materials possess large
surface energy, which make them
thermodynamically unstable or metastable
 This accounts for all their special behavior
 This also produces all the challenges on their
stability.
Size-Affected Phenomena

An essential outcome of miniaturization is the dominance

of surfaces
Surface influences most of the material-physical
phenomena
Surface Effects
Volume and Surface Area
 Size Effects could be due to:
 Boundary interaction on
fundamental transport
mechanisms (such as phonon
transport and molecular
motion)
 Size effect on the
thermal/electrical conductivity
value
 Effect on radiative heating
and radiative properties
 Dominance of surface area
compared to volume
 Frictional Effects and velocity
distributions
 Reynolds number (viscous
force/inertia force) and
Turbulence onset
Physical Phenomena
Space and Timescales

 Spatial Microscales:
 Physical dimension
 The space and  Mean Free Path
timescales for analysis  Wavelength
have to be chosen  Timescales:
based on the domain  Laser pulse duration
size and the fastness of  Relaxation time (time for
the process equilibrium from
excitation)
 Thermalization time (time
for electron-phonon
energy transfer)
Physical Properties
Incapability of Conventional Definitions
 Fourier’s Law
q = - k ΔT/Δx
 Newton’s law of viscosity
 Hook’s law
 Ohm’s Law
 All these relate between the
gradient of a potential to an
effect, based on macroscopic
observation.
 Example:
 Fourier’s law, which we believe
to be an authentic law has
these handicaps:
 Does not talk about changing
heat fluxes
 Does not talk about the
propagation speed of energy
carriers
 Does not talk about size effect
of thermal conductivity at all.
 Still we use the law along with
the transient conservation
equation to obtain
temperature distributions.
 Other models such as
hyperbolic heat conduction
equations has been proposed
Heat Conduction
Size-effect on Thermal Conductivity

 Thermal conductivity is
defined by Fourier’s
Law, and is taken as a
directional material
property, dependent on
the temperature.
 In small dimensions
(such as thin films) this
assumption is found to
fail. The measured
values are found to be
size dependent.
Nath and Chopra (1974)
Thin Films in IC applications
Silicon On Insulator Devices
 Modern semi-conductor
devices are fabricated using
thin films of silicon
(substrate), silicon dioxide
(insulation or passivation)
and copper interconnects.
Size affected values of
thermal conductivity are
required to perform
calculations for appropriate
design of these
components, to avoid Ju and Goodson (1998)
operational failure due to
differential heating.
Fabrication and Operation of
SOI Devices
 Thermal control during
the fabrication
processes of SOI
devices involving laser
induced heating.
Perfect temperature
control is required
 Design of the
constituent films such
that there is no thermal Construction of a SOI device
failure during operation
Fluid Flow and Heat Convection
Modified Continuum and Discrete
Analysis

 Knudsen number (λ/d) can be used as a criterion:

 Kn < 0.001 Continuum flow
 0.001< Kn <0.1 Slip flow
 0.1 < Kn <10 Transition flow
 Kn >10 Free molecular flow

 In size-affected domains the continuum model can be modified

using velocity slip and temperature jump boundary conditions.
 These boundary conditions are written in terms of the molecular
mean free paths and the gradients of the variables themselves.
 In free molecular flow regime, discrete analysis based on
molecular dynamics simulations is preferred.
Integrated Microchannel
Heat Sinks for Electronics
 Microchannel heat sinks,
with designs such as the
typical schematic shown in
the diagram are effective
devices for removal of
thermal energy from very
small areas
 Single phase sensible
convection or two phase
flow associated with phase
change (and latent heat
transfer)
 Nanoparticle suspensions
(nanofluids) can be used in
microchannels
 25

Fabrication Methods
• Atom-by-atom assembly (Bottom Up)
– Like bricklaying, move atoms into
place one at a time using tools like
the AFM and STM IBM logo assembled
• Chisel away atoms (Top down) from individual xenon
atoms
– Like a sculptor, chisel out material
from a surface until the desired
structure emerges
• Self assembly
– Set up an environment so atoms
assemble automatically. Nature uses Polystyrene
self assembly (e.g., cell membranes) spheres self-
assembling
Source: http://www.phys.uri.edu/~sps/STM/stm10.jpg; http://www.nanoptek.com/digitalptm.html
What We Need

solar Storage

Legs and wings

What We Need

 The emerging research area

of nanotechnology is
expected to profoundly
impact science and
Bio-medical
technology in the future.
 What we need is the attitude
to learn, and apply what we
learn for the well-being of
mankind.

Environment