Nanoengineering

Nanoengineering is the practice of engineering on the nanoscale. It derives its name from the nanometre, a unit of measurement equalling one billionth of a meter.

Nanoengineering is largely a synonym for nanotechnology, but emphasizes the engineering rather than the pure science aspects of the field.

The first nanoengineering program in the world was started at the University of Toronto within the Engineering Science program as one of the Options of study in the final years. In 2003, the Lund Institute of Technology started a program in Nanoengineering. In 2005, the University of Waterloo established a unique program which offers a full degree in Nanotechnology Engineering. ^[1] The University of California, San Diego followed shortly thereafter in 2007 with its own department of Nanoengineering.

Techniques

• Photolithography - Using light to produce patterns in chemicals, and then etching to expose the surface.
• Electron beam lithography - Similar to photolithography, but using electron beams instead of light.
• Scanning tunneling microscope (STM) - Can be used to both image, and to manipulate structures as small as a single atom.
• Molecular self-assembly - Arbitrary sequences of DNA can now be synthesized cheaply in bulk, and used to create custom proteins or regular patterns of amino acids. Similarly, DNA strands can bind to other DNA strands, allowing simple structures to be created.