SGER: Massively Parallel Nanorobotics

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This award, in the Small Grants for Exploratory Research mode, funds an initial exploration of algorithmic and control issues for massively parallel manipulation of nanometer-scale structures. Manipulation of such objects with the tip of a Scanning Probe Microscope (SPM) is an emerging and very promising technique for constructing nanodevices by robotic assembly. However, SPM-based nanoassembly has a low throughput, which is a major drawback for large-scale manufacturing. Parallel operation with arrays of probe tips can provide a solution to the throughput problem. Array hardware is being developed at several laboratories, but software for programming them is unavailable. This SGER research will seek strategies and algorithms for programming massively parallel SPM tip arrays to execute nanomanipulation tasks, such as writing data on the nanoscale equivalent of a compact disk by arranging nanoparticles on a surface. Many of these tasks require collaboration between tips and raise challenging problems, which will be explored. An important goal is to reduce the complexity of the hardware necessary to accomplish the tasks.