From Microsystems To Nanosystems

A. Hansson. (1998), JBIS, 51, pp.123-126

Refcode: 1998.51.123

Abstract:

“We are approaching another Revolution 0n a scale that will rival the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century“. This statement is not made by a mystic new age thinker, but by the executive director of the Micromachine Center in Japan. Takayuki Hirano is talking about MEMS or micro-electrical mechanical systems. In the German Institute of Microtechnology, Mainz, a two-rotor helicopter of less than half a gram has flown 130 mm into the air. At the University of California, Berkeley. Kris Pister is building ant-sized robots. Most of the knowledge embedded in such demonstrators will be used in medical treatments. For example, a millimetre hand on an endoscope linked to a virtual-reality glove for the surgeon would improve precision operations significantly. The limitation at present is the use of silicon as construction material due to use of the lithographic processes developed, and paid for by silicon chips and information.