This Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC) is a comprehensive research and education platform that will stimulate U.S. competitiveness by moving nanotechnology from laboratory innovation to manufacturable nanostructured components and devices. The Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing builds on recognized excellence in nanoscience and technology at UMass and a world-class program in polymer research to yield complete specification of nanostructures combining directed self-assembly and imprinting with subsequent transfer of 2-D and 3-D structures, and advanced deposition techniques, into active components, functional materials, and fully-integrated devices. Bottom-up processes will be seamlessly integrated with conventional fabrication methods for dramatic advances in semiconductor devices, microelectronics, biomedical applications, and other areas. In addition, the Center offers a new strategic model to bridge the innovation-to-implementation gap through test beds that combine leading breakthrough technology, professional market analysis, industrial-scale fabrication processes, and facilitated technology transfer.
The impact of this Center is strengthened through strong collaborators including leading R&D consultant TIAX and prototyping partner Lucent Technologies will allow the Center to drive concepts to commercialization. Students educated in this environment will be well prepared for careers that partner innovation with implementation. The Center initiates a National Nanomanufacturing Network (NNN)--a catalyst for U.S. nanomanufacturing-based economic development, a network of shared manufacturing facilities, a dynamic web-based information clearinghouse, and a pathway for university-industry-government partnerships. The NNN will integrate and amplify the impact of all NSECs and the nanomanufacturing research community. The Center will address a national need by creating and disseminating research-based multimedia instructional materials to stimulate and educate audiences ranging from K-12 students and teachers, community college learners, and the public. A strong societal implications program includes national workshops and survey studies. The Center's efforts are leveraged by strong commitments from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing (CHM) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst is a Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC) sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The CHM is a leading research and education center for the development of efficient processes and versatile tools for manufacturing of nanotechnology enabled materials and devices. The use of nanoscale architectures can yield devices with unprecedented performance for computing, energy conversion and human health. Essentially, the CHM specializes in the science and engineering of creating nanometer-scale structures—thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair—as building blocks for manufacturing device components and systems. To accomplish this mission the, CHM integrates advances from the fields of materials science, chemistry, physics and engineering to create device components and systems that can be built up along multiple size scales. Initial work at the center concentrated on how nanoscale structures can be engineered from polymers and hybrid materials for applications in precision microelectronics, focusing primarily on silicon-wafer based technology for computing and data storage. The CHM is now extending these approaches to large-volume, low-cost, roll-to-roll (R2R) manufacturing processes currently used in the advanced printing, coating and flexible electronics industries to in order to apply the benefits imparted by nanotechnology to a broad array of products ranging from flexible electronics, to sensors, to energy conversion and storage devices. These advances have the potential to transform production of technologically-sophisticated products providing opportunity for smart, low-cost, efficient and green manufacturing. The research activities of the center have resulted in 292 refereed, peer-reviewed journal papers fully or partially supported by CHM funding. These papers have appeared in prestigious journals including Science, Nature, Nature Chemistry, Nature Nanotechnology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Advanced Materials, Physical Review Letters, Journal of the American Chemical Society and Chemistry of Materials. In addition, CHM researchers have filed nearly 40 patent applications. In addition to high-impact research, the CHM also facilitates and staffs the National Nanomanufacturing Network (www.internano.org), an important resource for the nanomanufacturing R&D community in coordinating nanomanufacturing workshops, developing nanomanufacturing technology roadmaps, fostering inter-institutional collaborations, and providing an information clearinghouse for emergent issues related to manufacturing at the nanoscale. Other broader impacts facilitated by the CHM include an annual week-long summer workshop in nanotechnology for high school and middle school science teachers, creation of video-based instructional modules on nanoscience and nanomanufacturing, and a summer undergraduate research experience program for young scientists from diverse backgrounds.
