Nanofabrication is machining and tooling at the atomic or molecular level. It is used to create materials, devices and systems with new and unique properties. • Nanotechnology can spawn a second industrial revolution • Nanotechnology will be used across all industrial sectors including bioengineering, information technology, manufacturing materials • The US will need 1 million skilled nanotechnology workers by 2010 • Annual starting salary for nanotechnicians is approximately $35,000 Precision Metal Forming and Advanced Materials Southwestern PA has been a leader in developing advanced materials to manufacture hardened, strong tools and high precision machined parts.
“Nanofabrication” refers to the fabrication of structures with feature sizes measured in the nanometers, especially below 20 nanometers on a side. Current technology mostly permits nanofabrication only in a two-dimensional sense. A major subset of current nanofabrication are the technologies that fall under the purview of nanolithography, which basically just means “nano-scale writing” and implies a 2-dimensional result. In this sense, even conventional photolithography used to make computer chips is technically nanofabrication, as feature sizes are measured in the hundreds of nanometers. However, “nanofabrication” tends to refer to newer and more cutting-edge approaches. Conventional photolithography, the mainstay of the computing industry, can be used to create features with dimensions as small as 22 nm, though this is very expensive and is not currently considered cost-effective. More typically, patterns have feature sizes of about 193 nm as a lower bound. In anticipation of running
– has a small answer. The prefix “nano” means one-billionth, so nanofabrication is engineering at the tiniest of sizes. Nanotechicians make and use structures that range in size from one nanometer (one-billionth of a meter) to microns (one-millionth of a meter). Engineering at this miniscule scale opens a huge realm of opportunity. “Graduates of this program will be prepared to access well-paying careers in a variety of high-tech industries – including pharmaceuticals and biomedical applications, fiber-optic communications, sensors, power electronics, computer/electronics chips, and a host of others,” said Nicholas Akinkuoye, Ed.D, CCAC-South Campus Dean of Occupational Technologies. The National Science and Technology Council, in stressing the unprecedented spread of nanotechnology, has stated that it “is likely to change the way almost everything – from vaccines to computers to automobile tires to objects not yet imaginable – is designed and made.” CCAC’s NMT program will begin this