ICSTI Statement on Nanotechnology - Forfás

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At the present time the photonics sector faces two principal
barriers to growth.
Cost Reduction: The cost equations have changed dramatically in
recent years with the collapse of the telecommunications market.
The current requirement is that capital equipment should pay for
itself within 12 months. The technology impact of this business
requirement is a drive towards scalable architectures.
Manufacturing: Typically quality costs money and economies of
scale in manufacturing are hard to achieve for photonic
components. It is essential that the industry provides higher
functionality at volumes that are cost effective in an environment
in which the price paid to transmit voice and data is decreasing.
One route to meet this challenge is to develop the optical
equivalent of VLSI whereby field-programmable optical
components can be produced in sufficiently high volumes to allow
for significant economics of scale and reduction in cost.
6.3.3 Intersection with Nanotechnology Roadmap
Nanotools: The photonics sector is similar to the electronics
sector in that it has operated on the nanoscale for some time and
the sector has developed many of its own nanotools, e.g. atomic
layer deposition techniques for fabrication of quantum well and
quantum dot devices. Consequently, the emergence of a mature
global nanotools sector is not a key driver.
Nanomaterials: The emergence of a global nanomaterials sector
could impact significantly on the photonics sector, e.g. through
developments in chemically synthesised semiconductor quantum
dots with tailored optical properties, see Chapter Three.
Controlling the structure of new and existing materials on the
nanometre scale will be central to delivering these innovations.
Nanoenabled Products and Processes: Development of
nanotools, nanomaterials and nanoenabled products and processes
will occur in parallel, e.g. next-generation optoelectronic devices