Open Competition 1 - Electronics and Photonics

High-Speed AFM-Based Platform for Quantitative Nanomechanical Measurements

Sponsor: Dow Chemical Company

• Project Performance Period: 12/1/2004 - 11/30/2007
• Total project (est.): $13,389,209.00
• Requested ATP funds: $6,560,714.00

Materials on the nanoscale - those with structures measured in nanometers (<100 nm) - offer revolutionary capabilities and performance based on the unique advantages of ultra-small structure. The promise of such nanomaterials cannot be fully realized, however, until the relationships between structure and physical properties are understood at nanometer level. Currently no instrumentation exists for measuring quantitative material properties at this scale for a wide variety of material types. This is recognized as a key bottleneck to retaining U.S. research leadership in nanotechnology versus foreign competition. The Dow Chemical Company (Midland, Mich.) and Veeco Instruments, Inc. (Woodbury, N.Y.) propose to develop and validate the world's first platform for high-speed, high-bandwidth quantitative nanomechanical measurements (QNM). The proposed QNM will greatly accelerate materials discovery and development by providing the tools and data to engineer materials tailored to handle specific stresses for specific applications - materials by design. The main instrument will be based on atomic force microscopy (AFM), a well-established technique for high-resolution surface imaging and compositional imaging, combined with nanoindentation to determine mechanical properties. The project will take on several difficult technical barriers, including AFM's slow scanning speed and inability to provide quantitative mechanical data, and the poor nanoscale resolution of existing indentation measurements. Technical goals include 100-fold improvements in imaging speed and dynamic bandwidth for AFM, and the ability to make quantitative nanoscale measurements of elastic modulus (within 5 percent) for dimensions under 100 nm. If successful, the QNM platform will lead to a wide range of technical and economic benefits, but this project will focus on two that are particularly compelling: polypropylene nanocomposites (which can save fuel costs by lowering the overall weight of automobiles) and reduction of yield loss in below-65 nm semiconductor manufacturing (both applications offer savings of hundreds of millions of dollars per year). The ATP funding will substantially accelerate commercialization of this high-risk platform technology by at least three years and enable the US to maintain its technological lead in this arena.

For project information:

Jeff Schatzer, (989) 636-5017
jlschatzer@dow.com

Active Project Participants

• Veeco Instruments, Inc. (Santa Barbara, CA)
  [Original, Active Member]
  

ATP Project Manager

Purabi Mazumdar, (301) 975-4891
purabi.mazumdar@nist.gov