OCTOBER 28--Researchers working with the Office of Naval Research (ONR) have developed a way to build extremely small sensors using nanorobot fabrication. This new process, created by Harold Szu and James Buss of ONR and implemented by Xi Ning of Michigan State University, allows a human operator using a powerful microscope and hand-held controller to manipulate nanosized contact points remotely--like using extremely small hands--to construct the pixel elements that will form the heart of the sensor. Each pixel will be composed of carbon nanotubes, which have nanoscale diameters and submicron lengths.
Because of the one-dimensional nature of carbon nanotubes, they have significantly lower thermal noise than traditional semiconductors. A full-sized camera incorporating this technology would be inexpensive and lightweight--about one-tenth the cost, weight, and size of a conventional digital camera.
The proposed IR camera is being considered for other applications as well, including breast-cancer detection. "This new technology will revolutionize how sensors, cameras, and other medical devices will be made by a nanorobot, which can respond to public demand for noncontact examinations for early cancer screening at every household," said Father Giofranco Basti of the Pontifical Lateran University at the Vatican City, Rome, Italy. Next spring, the university will conduct a screening testbed of early breast tumor treatment using this new technology in collaboration with the ONR.
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