Part IFor many years the sensors industry has experienced several revolutionary technological innovations such as the inception of MEMS process technology that have dramatically improved the design, allowing manufacturers to constantly reduce the size of their sensors and/or sensor systems. MEMS technology has dramatically impacted the sensors market, allowing for the reduction not only in the sensing devices'' size but cost. Companies such as Analog Devices, Motorola, Novasensor (now part of GE Industrial division), Texas Instruments, Honeywell, and Measurement Specialties amongst others are moving toward that, and are heavily involved in the design of Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) based sensors.
Today, nanotechnology has been the topic of choice not only in the sensors world but in many others such as telecommunications, computers, and medicine, among other markets. Nanotechnology is projected to become one of the key enabling technologies of the 21st century. Nanotechnology is a broad term covering a wide range of small-scale scientific advancements, from medicine to computing and military defense. This innovative technology has attracted the interest of many industry sectors and companies redirecting internal activities to prepare themselves for this new challenging journey.
What Is Nanotechnology?
Richard Feynman, the late physicist who envisioned the emerging field 40 years ago, stated, "There''s Plenty of Room at the Bottom." Nanotechnology is expected to revolutionize markets from the sensors industry to medicine. Some potential applications are cancer-fighting drugs the size of a cell, ultra-fast computers as small as a sugar cube, and even diminute sensors that can instantly detect the presence of anthrax. Nevertheless, these applications may be a decade or more away from becoming commercial products because of the lack of industry standards and customer awareness.
Other nanotechnology innovations seem tailored to the post-September 11th world, like anthrax-detection devices that already exist and are being marketed. According to the NanoBusiness Alliance (www.nanobusiness.org), "You could have a sensor that could detect pathogens on food when shopping for food at the supermarket!"
The term nanotechnology applies not to any one industry, but to most scientific and technological innovations that are made by using the smallest building blocks of nature. Basically, nanotechnology deals with assembling atoms and molecules to build objects, industrial materials, electronic parts, medical devices, and more. In other words, the term nanotechnology is a reference to a nanometer, which is one-billionth of a meter or about one one-hundred-thousandth the diameter of a human hair.
Market Dynamics
Nowadays, there are many companies that are investing heavily in nanotechnology and other related advanced technologies. It presents a mystery to venture capital firms such as Lux Capital of New York and Draper Fisher Jurveston of Redwood City, CA, and other private-sector investors. According to industry participants, it is estimated that approximately $100 million of venture capital money has been spent into nanotechnology companies.
As far as government support goes, the Bush Administration has asked Congress for $710 million in nanotechnology research funding for the 2003 fiscal year, an increase compared to 2002, another indication that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks could accelerate the development of nanotechnology. More than $200 million of the government''s nanotechnology budget will go to the Defense Department. Moreover, many companies are considering the potential applications of the nanotube, a carbon-based cylinder that conducts electricity well, and, among other uses, could well turn up as part of the screen of your personal digital assistant within a few years.
It is always extremely difficult to forecast revenues of emerging technologies such as nanotechnology, since there have not been actual products commercialized yet. Most of the nanoproducts are still in the research and development (R & D) stage. Nevertheless, an estimate can be made following a set of indicators that have worked with other technologies in the past, and those are the number of scientific articles and the number of patents. The former is usually a good indicator for scientific activity, the latter for the ability to transform scientific results into applications. The number of filed patents is an appropriate indicator to estimate the capacity of the laboratories to transfer their research results into industrial applications. Moreover, the most active country in nanoscale research is the United States, with roughly one-quarter of all publications, followed by Japan, Germany, China, France, the United Kingdom, and Russia.
According to the National Science Foundation (NSF), the nanotechnology market is projected to generate revenues of approximately $1 trillion by 2015. Nanotubes could be the first commodity in the nanotech economy. Some of the world''s largest companies and labs for research: IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, and NEC amongst others. Currently in North America there are approximately 230 companies investing in nanotechnology research, while there are around 120 European and 80 Asian companies also concentrating most of their efforts on this innovative nanotechnology.
So far nanotechnology has not have a strong impact in the sensors industry. Most of the markets, such as flow, level, pressure, and temperature sensors amongst others, tend to be slow receptors of new technology. For instance, although MEMS technology has been around since the 1980s, only in recent years has it had a significant impact in the sensors industry. Due to the highly fragmented nature of the sensors industry, it is always challenging for new technologies to be easily accepted, especially because most end users are already used to old, traditional technologies.
Another challenge that sensor manufacturers face when introducing a new technology is the end-user''s hesitance to adopt new technology. However, as more sensor companies begin to incorporate MEMS technology to manufacturer their sensors and as the number of MEMS "start-up" companies continues to increase over the forecast period, MEMS-based sensors usage will increase in more conservative markets such as chemical and petrochemical, food and beverage, water and wastewater, among others.
Most industrial markets are reluctant to adopt newer and smarter sensor systems, preferring to continue using old, traditional technology. This is due in part, to the lack of end-user awareness and understanding of the vast benefits smart and MEMS-based sensors can offer to their applications such as reducing the cost of wiring and cabling, self-calibrating capabilities, smaller in size, and sometimes can have a lower price than bulk, traditional sensors. Therefore, manufacturers need to educate their customers on how the techonology works and how it can best suit their application. Once manufacturers and end users are aware of all the benefits advanced technologies such as MEMS bring about, it is possible that in the next six to ten years nanotechnology-based sensors will be ready to be commercialized.
Potential Applications
In the medical sector there are several future applications that are projected to drive the fast development of nanotechnology. One of these is the development of nanosensors able to detect and fight cancer. These nanosensors measure five nanometers or five billionths of a meter in diameter, which means that billions of nanosensors can be packed within a small amount of space. These sensors can be delivered into a patient through a skin patch or even digested with food. Once in the body, the tiny nanosensors embed themselves within lymphocytes, the white blood cells that provide the body''s defenses against infection and disease. Then each nanosensor, coated with special chemical agents, would fluoresce or glow in the presence of those protein changes.
Nevertheless, there are still some uncertainties as to the entire reliability of these nanosensors since it still seems unclear if the fluorescent glow of the nanosensors in the white blood cells could be picked up amid the sea of darker red blood cells. It is projected that as more sensor companies enter the nanotechnology world the number of applications will increased significantly and these innovative sensors are projected to have a key position in markets such as automotive, factory automation, and test and measurement, amongst others.
Nanotechnology, as a whole, is still an emerging area with the need to make progress in both scientific and technological terms before enormous commercialization of products may occur. To be continued. Stay tuned for the next series of articles about nanotechnology in the sensors market.
Part IINanosensors: a myth or a reality? Although nanotechnology has grabbed the attention of not only scientists but of venture capitalists, government officials, and industry analysts, there are still some doubts about whether or not nanosensors would be successfully accepted by sensor manufacturers and/or end users. Let''s try to unveil the mystery behind nanotechnology and the effects it has had on the sensors industry. First of all, nanosensors can be defined as extremely small devices capable of detecting and responding to physical stimuli with dimensions on the order of one billionth of a meter. Moreover, nanosensors will be able to detect physical parameters such as biological and chemical substances, displacement and motion, force and mass, acoustic, thermal, and electromagnetic stimuli amongst others. There are three types of nanosensors, which include: nanostructured particles, nanoparticles, and nanodevices.
Nanostructured Particles
Nanosensors that are made out of nanostructured particles are typically microdevices, but the material used to build them has nanoscale features. For instance, porous silicon is one type of nanostructure material. Some examples of sensors that have been created using nanostructured porous silicon include: optical biosensors, DNA detection sensor, ethanol detection sensor, and photodectors, amongst others.
A lot of nanotechnology, such as nanobots, is still very futuristic. Initial applications for nanostructured materials are personal and healthcare products, catalysts, electronics, chemical mechanical polishing, thermal sprays, and a variety of coatings for abrasion resistance, and UV/IR attenuation. According to a study released by Merrill Lynch in September 2001, the market for nanostructured materials alone could eventually be between $5.0 billion and $20.0 billion, and it is projected to displace many conventional materials. However, the timing and growth rate is difficult to predict, but the industry believes it should be fairly rapid over the next three to five years.
Nanoparticles
Nanoparticle sensors can be used either within the body (in vivo) or outside the body (in vitro), such as test tubes for disease detection, cellular repair, and drug delivery. Nanoparticles tend to range from micro (more than 10 nm), meso (10-100nm), to macro (more than 100nm) sizes. Most nanosensors have been fabricated in the meso to macro nanoparticle size range. These are used as biochemical sensors with fluorescence also being the main detection method. In addition, nanoparticle sensors are capable of measuring pH, calcium, sodium, potassium, chloride, oxygen, glucose, glutamate, magnesium, and presence of biological warfare agents like anthrax by DNA detection. Nanoparticles have also been developed as opto-bioreceptor, opto-chemical, and spatial imaging sensors.
Nanodevices
The other type of nanosensor, nanodevices include resonant cantilever systems that absorb mass and vary resonant frequency depending on how much of the biological or chemical substance is detected. These devices are projected to act as sensors that detect tumors and then release drugs to attack the tumors by actively bending to open a gate to release the drug -- site-specific drug delivery. Most of the nanodevices needed to create nanosensors exist only in theory, or the pieces of the system exist, but not an integrated device. Biomedical applications are the driving force for the development of nanosensor technologies, with a particular focus on in vivo and intracellular nanosensors.
Amazing Technology, But. . .
One of the biggest challenges for nanosensors is the ability to interface between nanoscale devices, microsystems, and macrosystems. Nanosensors will need to convert optical, chemical, biological and electrical data into signals that can be transmitted within nanosensor systems, and that can be acquired by data acquisition systems and computers that allow for human interaction and analysis. Another challenge that some nanotechnology companies are currently facing is the lack of funds in order to develop and introduce competitive products into the marketplace. Even though there are some venture capitalist such as Apax Partners, Ardesta, JP Morgan, and Lux Capital, amongst others, that are investing in nanotechnology companies, there are some that are still not ready to take the risk in investing a substantial amount of capital into a technology that has not been entirely commercialized. Nevertheless, the arduous efforts of not only nanotechnology companies but of universities, research centers, and associations are projected to soon make nanotechnology-based products a reality.
Market Dynamics
According to the NanoBusiness Alliance (www.nanobusiness.org), over the last two years the government has spent approximately two billion dollars in nanotechnology worldwide. Nanotechnology revenues are expected to reach over $200 billion by 2006. In the U.S. alone there are over 1,200 nanotechnology startups versus 250-350 in the rest of the world. Some of the publicly-traded U.S. nano companies include: Nanogen, Altair, Nanophase, Nanometrics, and there are also nanotechnology startups such as Nano-Tex, Luna Innovations, Zyvex, Nanospectra, and Evident Technologies.
What Will the Future Bring?
Future nanosensor devices will need to build upon nanotechnology that is currently under development such as Nano-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (NEMS), Single Electron Transistors (SET), biomolecular motors, molecular switches, nanotubes, and nanowires. Each of these technologies will play a key role in the development of true nanosensor devices that don''t require macro scale detection equipment. In the future, industries such as the semiconductor, process control industries related to catalyst market, and some pharmaceutical manufacturers have anticipated significant dependence on nanotechnology.
Indeed, nanosensors companies still have a lot of homework in order to successfully penetrate the highly fragmented sensors industry and more importantly, gain a substantial customer base. Most of the time end users are hesitant to adopt new technology; they prefer to continue using the same traditional sensing systems; however, there are other end-user markets such as electronics, biomedicine, and telecommunications, which are expected to be more receptive to new and hi-tech products.
It is predicted that nanotechnology will continue to evolve as both the government and investors work together with companies to allow them to design reliable, innovative, and cost-effective nanosensors and/or other types of nanostructured device. In fact the U.S. Federal Government has increased its annual budget for nanotechnology research to $650 million for 2003. More interesting information about the advancements of nanotechnology and nanosensors as well as brief profiles of nanocompanies will be available in the next series of articles. Stay tuned!
More information on this article series or any of the following related reports is available from Frost & Sullivan:
- North American Wireless Sensors Market
- North American MEMs Sensor Market
- World Magnetic Sensors Market
- World Load Cell Sensors Market
- World Flow Sensors Market
- North America Infrared Sensors Market