Final Report Large-Product General -Purpose Design and Manufacturing Using Nanoscale Modules NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts CP-04-01 Phase I Advanced Aeronautical/Space Concept Studies PriPrnicincpialpa Iln Ivnevstesigtiagtaotor:r :C hCrihsr iPs hoPheoneinxi x CoC-Ion-Ivnevstesigtiagtaor:tor :Ti Thaihmeamre Tor Tthot-Fh-Feejjelel MaMayy 2 2, ,2 2000055 1 Cover page: The computer-controlled NIAC desktop nanofactory (top figure) uses nanoscale machinery (lower right) to manufacture a molecularly precise 3-D product—a high performance water filter—out of nanoblocks made using bottom-up techniques, in this case synthesized from 2-layer silsesquioxane deriviatives (lower left). The authors wish to thank Eric Drexler, Jeffrey Soreff, and Robert Freitas for helpful comments on portions of this document. 2 Table of Contents Table of Contents.............................................................................................. 3 Summary........................................................................................................... 5 Background 1. Incentives................................................................................................................8 1.1. Scaling laws............................................................................................... 8 1.2. Molecular Fabrication Advantages............................................................ 9 1.3. Exponential manufacturing ..................................................................... 11 1.4. Information delivery rate..........................................................................13 1.5. Manufacturing Cost..................................................................................14 1.6. New high-performance products..............................................................15 2. Historical Overview of Molecular Manufacturing............................................... 18 2.1. Early proposals.........................................................................................18 2.2. Convergent Assembly.............................................................................. 22 2.3. Planar assembly .......................................................................................24 2.4. Conclusion and Further Work .................................................................28 3. Nanoscale Component Fabrication and Assembly...............................................30 3.1. Core concepts...........................................................................................30 3.2. Structural materials.................................................................................. 32 3.3. Building molecular structures.................................................................. 34 3.4. Joining large molecules............................................................................37 Proposal 4. Molecular Building Blocks...................................................................................39 4.1. Block composition................................................................................... 39 4.2. Handling and joining blocks.................................................................... 44 4.3. Molecular electromechanical actuators....................................................46 5. Early Manufacturing Architectures...................................................................... 53 5.1. Background.............................................................................................. 53 5.2. “Tattoo” architecture................................................................................55 5.3. “Silkscreen” architecture..........................................................................57 5.4. Molecular building blocks and nanosystem functionality........................58 5.5. Throughput and scaleup of molecular block placement systems.............59 6. Early Products.......................................................................................................61 6.1. Water Filter.............................................................................................. 61 6.2. Artificial Kidney...................................................................................... 62 6.3. Laptop Supercomputer............................................................................. 63 Goal 7. Incremental Improvements................................................................................... 64 7.1. Improving nanosystems............................................................................64 7.2. Removing the solvent...............................................................................64 7.3. Manufacturing blocks...............................................................................65 7.4. Improving the mechanical design............................................................ 66 3 8. Covalent Solid Nanosystems................................................................................68 8.1. Van der Waals Robotic Gripping At Micron Scale................................. 68 8.2. Mechanical fastening: Ridge joints..........................................................70 8.3. Efficient bearings between stiff surfaces................................................. 72 8.4. Electrostatic actuators.............................................................................. 73 8.5. Digital logic..............................................................................................73 8.6. Mechanochemical power conversion.......................................................73 9. Advanced Nanofactory Architecture and Operation............................................ 75 9.1. Block delivery.......................................................................................... 75 9.2. Factory control and data architecture....................................................... 76 9.3. Block fabrication......................................................................................77 9.4. Physical architecture................................................................................ 78 9.5. Reliability.................................................................................................80 10. Advanced Product Design and Performance...................................................... 82 10.1. Optimal use of high-performance materials...........................................82 10.2. Performance of advanced products........................................................ 83 10.3. Design of advanced products................................................................. 84 10.4. Rapid R&D and deployment..................................................................85 10.5. Low cost of manufacture........................................................................85 10.6. Applications........................................................................................... 86 10.7. Aerospace applications...........................................................................87 A. Nanoscale Properties and Phenomena.................................................................89 A.1. Nanoscale Properties..............................................................................89 A.2. Functions and Functional Nanostructures............................................... 91 B. Related Concepts, Tools, and Techniques........................................................... 97 B.1. Goals........................................................................................................97 B.2. Engineering approaches...........................................................................99 B.3. Parallel and reliable operation............................................................... 100 B.4. Efficiency, reversibility, and far-from-equilibrium machines............... 101 B.5. Transport............................................................................................... 103 B.6. Efficient sliding interfaces.....................................................................103 B.7. Other useful techniques......................................................................... 104 B.8. Incremental approaches to advanced functionality................................105 B.9. Molecular manufacturing contrasted with biological function..............106 C. Issues and Constraints........................................................................................108 C.1. Small size of molecules.........................................................................108 C.2. Thermal noise........................................................................................ 108 C.3. Other error sources................................................................................ 109 C.4. Heat removal......................................................................................... 109 C.5. Complex and poorly understood phenomena........................................ 110 C.6. Need for extremely reliable reactions....................................................110 C.7. Need for manufacturing closure with limited palette............................ 111 D. Further Reading................................................................................................. 112 4 Summary The goal of molecular manufacturing is to build engineerable high-performance products of all sizes, rapidly and inexpensively, with nanoscale features and atomic precision. Molecular manufacturing is the only