Nanosystems for Molecular Manufacturing

Molecular manufacturing
(some development required)

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Montage of frames from the Productive Nanosystems video by John Burch

While upgrading parts of the E-drexler.com website, though, I’ve been re-reading some of the on-line content from Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation, the book that grew into, then out of, my MIT dissertation. Nanosystems explores what physics tells us about the potential of advanced molecular manufacturing systems and products. It outlines some ideas about pathways (the main focus of my blog posts), but the chief aim of Nanosystems is to examine methodologies for surveying technologies beyond our reach, and to describe some of what can be seen in the broad territory that will be opened by progressive advances in atomically precise fabrication.

The book begins like this:

Chapter 1

Introduction and Overview

1.1. Why molecular manufacturing?

The following devices and capabilities appear to be both physically possible and practically realizable:

• Programmable positioning of reactive molecules with ~0.1 nm precision
• Mechanosynthesis at >10⁶ operations/device ? second
• Mechanosynthetic assembly of 1 kg objects in <10⁴ s
• Nanomechanical systems operating at ~10⁹ Hz
• Logic gates that occupy ~10^–26 m³ (~10^{– 8} μ³)
• Logic gates that switch in ~0.1 ns and dissipate <10^{– 21} J
• Computers that perform 10¹⁶ instructions per second per watt
• Cooling of cubic-centimeter, ~10⁵ W systems at 300 K
• Compact 10¹⁵ MIPS parallel computing systems
• Mechanochemical power conversion at >10⁹ W/m ³
• Electromechanical power conversion at >10¹⁵ W/m ³
• Macroscopic components with tensile strengths >5×10¹⁰ Pa
• Production systems that can double capital stocks in <10⁴ s

Of these capabilities, several are qualitatively novel and others improve on present engineering practice by one or more orders of magnitude. Each is an aspect or a consequence of molecular manufacturing.

The table of contents and sample chapters can be found here. Together, they give a damn good overview of the topic and how it fits with the rest of science and engineering. There’s a glossary, too.

A U.S. National Academies study reviewed the scientific basis of molecular manufacturing, primarily referencing Nanosystems; the committee recommended funding experimental research. Links can be found here.

  

Tagged as: molecular manufacturing, nanosystems, Nanotechnology