JK News Today
Jammu, January 22:
In an endeavour towards establishment of Centre for Nanotechnology in future, the University of Jammu, Prof Manoj K Dhar, Vice-Chancellor, University of Jammu invited eminent internationally recognized scientists for creating awareness about Nanotechnology and also discuss various applications of this technology at present and its potential for future. The four eminent scientists who participated in this dialogue held duringtwo day International Conference on Recent Advances in Interdisciplinary Sciences from January 11-12, 2019 were Dr. Meyya Meyyappan, Prof. V.Ramgopal Rao, Professor Ravi Silva and Prof. Vijay K. Arora.
Dr. Meyya Meyyappan, Chief Scientist, NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field gave a detailed presentation on Nano Electronics in “ Beyond Moore’s Law “ Era. He said “Vacuum is superior to any semiconductor in terms of electron transport, in addition to being immune to all radiations”. They have combined the best of vacuum transport and silicon technology to fabricate surround gate nanoscale vacuum transistors on 8 ” wafers with a channel dimension of 50 nm. These vacuum transistors, operating at a drive voltage of only 2 V, which is remarkable for vacuum devices, have the potential for THz electronics and several other applications. In his talk he also provided an overview of emerging printable electronics including gas sensors, biosensors, memory devices, energy storage devices, antennas, triboelectric nanogenerators and others. He further told the audience that in addition to printing the devices and integration of the devices into systems, tool development is receiving attention, rightfully so in order to meet the anticipated demands of internet of things (IoT). An atmospheric pressure plasma jet printing technology enable a one-step printing without the need for post-deposition thermal treatment. This is an alternative to inkjet printing for printing conducting, semiconducting, insulating and other materials on a variety of flexible substrates.
Prof. V.Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi spoke on Multi-disciplinary approach to Engineering. He said “India’s contribution to the world’s R&D and Intellectual Property is steadily increasing. In certain specialized areas such as Nanotechnology, India is among the top 3 countries in the world in terms of research publications and patent filings. Despite the low percentage of GDP spending for R&D in India, Indian researchers have excelled in research output, when measured in terms of the number of research publications. Though these are excellent achievements, the situation is entirely different when one looks at the innovation or the product development potential in the country. For example, India ranks very poorly on the Global Innovation Index (GII), and the research undertaken by Indian academic institutions, whether public or private, has hardly resulted in any major technological breakthrough of significant commercial value. Given this scenario, in order to make the Indian research competitive and sustainable in terms of innovation and product development, a multitude of initiatives have recently been contemplated and launched by the Govt. of India at the national level. In this talk, we will discuss the changing scenario for product innovation in Indian academic and R&D institutions, and also see how one can accelerate the culture of product innovation in the country through a multi-disciplinary approach”.
Professor Ravi Silva, Director of the Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) at the University of Surrey and Head of the Nano-Electronics Centre (NEC),UK spoke on Nano scale design using hybrid organic-in organics structures for electronics .He said “the demand for higher performance in electronic devices puts pressure on sustainable development and has driven industry to carefully examine optimum design routes for technologies.” Design of materials at the nano-scale allows one to optimise device performance and increase efficiency of operations. When the wavelength of interest in the case of PV and photonic devices are also in the nano-scale, fundamental improvements can be made to the devices in terms of performance and power usage. Finally, he said “the nanoscale design aspect is used to produce features that can mimic moth eye structures to produce some of the most absorbing materials ever manufactured. These have significant potential for opto-electronic devices”.
Prof. Vijay K. Arora, UTM Distinguished Visiting Professor, Wilkes University, USAspoke on Nanotechnology: Interdisciplinary Fusion of Science, Engineering, and Liberal Humanism. He said “Quantum (digital-type) concepts are gaining prominence over and above the classical (analog-type) ones in miniaturized devices where nanometer size can be less than or equal to the de Broglie wavelength of an electron in any of the three Cartesian directions. An electric field driving electrons in these devices can be extremely high. This converts random carrier motion to a streamlined one, thereby limiting the velocity to thermal velocity or Fermi velocity depending on the degeneracy of the sample. This re-organization of the carrier velocities makes familiar Ohm’s law invalid, thereby enhancing the role of high-field velocity saturation in performance evaluation and characterization of nanostructures. This is based on the extreme nonequilibrium Arora distribution function (NEADF). After a brief introduction of transition from Ohm to Arora, the presentation will take audience to IEEE theme of service to humanity with life, liberty and pursuit of happiness that transmigrated the soul of an Indian Dream into an American Dream as Indian spiritual values are being practiced in search for holistic lifestyle as America embraces yoga and meditation. One promise of nanotechnology is to prolong the human life in search for immortality (or gods and goddesses) by supplementing human priorities with technology. Interdisciplinary integration of science, engineering, and human sciences in search for liberal, social, and evolutionary humanism is emphasized and discussed for the betterment of humanity”.
The audience comprising of scientist from various parts of Country, faculty, scholars were highly enthused about the outcome of the dialogue particularly with regard to the application and relevance of Nanotechnology research in the present times.
