Wednesday, December 3, 2014

The Maximum and Minimum of Really Small Things

...lest I forget that I'm first and foremost a technologist



Reading the details of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry prompted my nostalgic flashback - way back - to the maximum and minimum of really small things...
While at the University of Florida, I spent countless hours flipping through 1000+ pages of Dr. Chih-Tang Sah's book Fundamentals of Solid State Electronics (good luck!) and other hard core texts on semiconductors. The complexity of the topics didn't derail my intense desire for a career in semiconductors. I worked hard to earn the right to wear a fab lab "bunny suit."
I didn't realize that working in a fab lab meant that I had to be bland - no fragrances, no nail polish, no make-up, matted hair from the head gear, almost always casual clothing. As you can see from my picture bland isn't part of my image. In those days I just wanted to be on the bleeding edge of technology no matter what it took.
After graduating from the University, I accepted a role in Motorola's Engineering Rotation Program (ERP) and confirmed my first assignment with Materials Research and Strategic Technologies (MRST) in Austin, TX. I was proud to be part of a small team of scientists that studied substances like barium strontium titanate (BST). Having just graduated I was eager to try anything.
My research liaison was Dr. Bo Jiang. I remember her name because it reminded me of Bojangles - a popular fast food chain. Bo was smart, funny, and drove a red Mazda Miata. She inspired me to think small - really small. I remember being impressed that she had acquired a PhD at a very young age (something like 23).
Bo tasked me with developing an HP VEE (Visual Engineering Environment) program to run time and temperature tests on BST capacitors. At the time .75 microns were the smallest size ferroelectric thin-film capacitors being designed, tested, and inspected in our lab. There was talk of nano devices, but it was still just talk.
That was then.
Each ERP rotation only lasted for 3 months so there wasn't much time for me to revel in my role. I buckled down and pulled together a program that captured BST hysteresis loops over several days and weekends - stepping through defined increments and capturing data. I summarized my findings on colorful PPT charts and reviewed the details with Bo.
Adjustments were made so that a final report could be presented to our Senior Scientist. I don't recall his name, but I do recall being really intimidated by him. He was very quiet, pensive, and super smart. In the end I managed to impress him with my work even though he pointed out several holes in my results. These were exciting times.
My passion for technology is undeniable. I love being on the tech edge and I'm willing to take risks to be there. I'm in awe of what we understand and of what we don't yet understand. I love the fact that the boundaries of knowledge continue to be shattered in ways that we can't even fathom.
While my work hasn't taken me into fabs or labs for many years, I can still feel the excitement of the time I spent buried in equipment, systems, test plans, data reviews, field trials, system deployments, outages, point releases, new releases, new technologies - repeat. I took great pleasure in breaking things that others said couldn't be broken so that reliability and standards of excellence could be improved. These were exciting times indeed.

The Maximum Limit of Really Small Things

Really small things matter.
In the late 1800s the diffraction limit for microscopy as defined by Ernst Abbe (1873) and Lord Rayleigh (1896) noted that it was impossible to resolve two elements of a structure that were closer than half a wavelength.
That was then.
The sizes of the biological entities as related to the diffraction limit are shown in the image. The limit runs through the mitochondrion.
Review additional details in the Advanced Information summary.

The Minimum Limit of Really Small Things

When I saw the that the nano-scale barrier for microscopy had been broken I smiled really wide even though I had absolutely nothing to do with it. I'm proud of the work of Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell, and William E. Moerner. They have taken us forward by focusing on the really small things.
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...these efforts will allow live-cell imaging at a truly molecular-scale resolution, thereby enabling the direct visualization of molecular interactions and biochemical events in living cells

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Benefits of Really Small Breakthroughs

Results of the nano-scale breakthrough have already advanced the fields of cell biology, microbiology, and neurobiology. I envision revolutionary treatments for diseases as just the beginning of what this breakthrough really means.
There will be rapid development of strange combinations of cheaper, faster, better applications of technologies and substances to a vast array of living organisms. I find it difficult to even think of solutions on a nano-scale, but it's fun to try.
Really small breakthroughs like this one are leading to a massive shift in knowledge requirements, a large number of new types of jobs, and new industries in science, technology, engineering, and math. Check out these projections.
That was then.
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It's settled then. Really small things matter - and there are no limits!

Are you prepared to take advantage of opportunities created by really small breakthroughs?

Add your comments and insights below.
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Check out these and some of my other LinkedIn feature articles:
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(NOTE: Dr. Bo Jiang referenced above is NOT the same as the male NASA contractor that was recently indicted for espionage.)

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