Small scale, big picture

Interview with Laurent Gouzenes, ST's Planning and R&D Programs Director

Every sector of industry will probably be affected by nanotechnology. Properties of all materials, such as color, strength and conductivity depend on the structure of their atoms, and when we can design and build on that scale, we can develop new materials and devices with entirely new properties. If you’re not a scientist, it’s still hard to come to terms with the size we’re talking about. During our discussions with Laurent Gouzenes, ST’s Planning and R&D Programs Director, he came up with a fascinating description of size – if a grain of sand was the equivalent of a city like London or Paris, a transistor would be the size of a household fridge in that city. That small, yet there are millions of transistors in a microchip within an electronic appliance, and the transistor itself is made of many parts, with as many as 30 different materials.

Nanotechnology plays a part in your PC, mobile phone, car keys, MP3 player, set-top box and any other electronic device you use. So the importance to ST is clear.
We asked Laurent:

How is our work likely to evolve in the future?

Things will get smaller and smaller yet more complex. By 2010, we want to build a chip with one billion parts. A car is made of about 5,000 parts, and a plane about 50 million parts, so our chips will be much more complex than a plane or a car. Managing complexity at this tiny scale is a huge challenge. We will need more technology to make it work. There will also be a greater effort to build in ‘redundancy’ – so that if one of the billion parts fails it does not make the chip as a whole fail. This in itself will require a considerable change of mindset, as today we work with a ‘zero defect’ mindset.

Will the application of the chips change?

Yes, it will. The memory capacity and communication skills will be vastly increased. Instead of mobile phones that hold some images, it will be perfectly normal to carry your life around in your pocket – all your photos, music, mail, favorite movies, etc. Also, you will be able to connect everything everywhere. There will also be applications for improving the energy management of the appliances we use. Plus, there will be entirely new products. Today, we use chips for information and communication processing. In the future, electronic devices will be able to ‘sense’ the environment, temperature and the presence of chemicals, so they will be able to do things to dramatically improve our lives, such as help diagnose and cure diseases. We will have more sophisticated x-rays and body scans, with greater diagnostic precision, able to follow what happens to the body while you are actually carrying out different actions. It will also be possible to use these kinds of devices to help regulate your body in old age or sickness. There is also the potential for robots in health care, helping people in an ageing society. One of our products already has the capacity to diagnose disease - our Lab-on-Chip.

Tell us more about the Lab-on-Chip.

The idea for the future is that while you are waiting to see a doctor, a Lab-on-Chip will analyze your problem. In effect, it holds some strands of DNA which match the characteristics of given viruses. The chip compares DNA extracted from your body fluids and if anything is recognized as similar, it indicates that you have a certain disease or virus.

What application does Lab-on-Chip have today?

It is used today for screening plants and animals, but it is very expensive and only used for pure research. One approach we have already taken is to develop very simple areas on the chip to detect one specific disease, for example bird flu.

What about the fears concerning nanotechnology and artificial intelligence?

These are totally unfounded, just science fiction fantasy like Star Trek and time travel. We - human beings – define the applications of nanotechnology. The technology does not decide for itself.

What about real risks for Health & Safety and the environment in our operations and from our products?

There is a risk about the spread of nanoparticles in nature, but this is the same situation we already have with chemicals used in any industry. What is new is that this is the first time in history that people are considering the risks before, and not after, developing a new technology. This is how things should be done.

What is the role of the French National Research Network for Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies?

It brings together the various fields of research, and private and public research laboratories, to provide a forum for all professionals to meet and talk about current issues and applications of research, to understand how technologies can be applied for the benefit of society and to help disseminate information and knowledge in this field. In order to accelerate the phase from research to application for the public good, we orient the selection of projects to be funded and create synergies between the different fields of research and application concerned.

Why were you chosen to lead the Network?

ST is clearly recognized as a leader in the field, firstly because the largest industrial field in nanotechnology is the semiconductor industry, but also because we have developed very good relationships with many public laboratories and this is a good example for other companies in France. By bringing in a worldwide view on science and technology combined with fierce international competition on business, we promote efficiency in R&D and public/private partnerships, and this fits closely with the aim to support the competitiveness of Europe in advanced technology.