Nanofabrication and characterization

Nanofabrication is the design and manufacture of devices with dimensions measured in nanometers. One nanometer is 10 -9 meters, or a millionth of a millimeter. Nanofabrication is of interest to computer engineers because it opens the door to super-high-density microprocessor s and memory chips. It has been suggested that each data bit could be stored in a single atom. Carrying this further, a single atom might even be able to represent a byte or word of data. Nanofabrication has also caught the attention of the medical industry, the military, and the aerospace industry. The market for nanofabrication equipment will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.4 percent over the period 2009 to 2014 and reach $90.4 billion in that year, according to Innovative Research and Products Inc. (Stamford, Connecticut).Over the same period the market for semiconductor wafers will grow at a CAGR of 14 percent to double and reach $20.6 billion in that year, the company said.