Present Status of
Japanese Nanotechnology Efforts
Tanya C. Sienko*
First Theory-Oriented Research Group
This is an abstract
for a talk to be given at the
Fifth
Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology.
The full paper is now available.
Japanese nanotechnology as it is now proceeding is almost
completely the outgrowth of work in semiconductor processing
(nanostructures) and micromachines. "Nanotechnology" is
taken to refer at present to the construction of nanostructures
on semiconductors and other inorganic surfaces. At present, the
semiconductor-inorganic efforts are driven mainly by the
consortia (government and business) investigating future
technology for computers. Japan is also seeing the rapid
development of equipment for use at the nanometer level (STMs and
AFMs) and its integration into the research laboratory.
Biotechnology still remains separate from nanotechnology
efforts. Over the last two years, certain areas of
interdisciplinary research linking biotechnology and electronics
which could have lead further towards the development of
nanotechnology in the Drexlerian sense have fragmented into
separate sub-disciplines.
The first part of this talk provides a quick overview of
Japan's science and technology organizations and their respective
areas of research. The second section is a summary of Japanese
efforts in nanostructure research starting with government
projects such as the Future Electronic Device project (MITI),
JRCAT (Joint Research Center for Atom Technology), ERATO projects
(STA), then moving to efforts by government/industry consortia
(SELETE).
The third section covers more speculative areas which in Japan
are not considered nanotechnology but have possible relevance.
This includes many of the ERATO projects (protein lattices,
electrochemical characterization using STMs, etc.), work with
fullerenes (various universities) and some of the ISTF projects
under MITI (protein assemblies, new structured materials).
Finally, some of Japan's earlier bio-electronics research has
mutated over to become research on biological neural networks,
artificial intelligence, and molecular computing efforts, which
may have relevance to Japanese nanotechnology efforts in the
future.
The present Japanese conception of "futuristic
technology" may be said to consider biotechnology, the
construction of new materials, and the realization of artificial
intelligence as its main goals. On the other hand, Japan is well
along the path of developing enabling technologies such as
micromachines and instrumentation and could rapidly decide to go
completely towards strong nanotechnology if it wished.
*Corresponding Address:
Tanya C. Sienko, First Theory-Oriented Research Group, 1-11-39
Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Yorktown Heights, Tokyo 100 JAPAN, ph:
+81-3-3581-2396, fax: +81-3-3503-3996 or +81-3500-5240, email: [email protected]
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