The technological objective of MONARCH is to produce the world????'s first scanning electron microscope (SEM) on-a-chip. Such an instrument would represent a step-change in electron beam (e-beam) technology comparable with the introduction of the silicon chip to electronics. This device will be orders of magnitude smaller than existing technology, would operate at lower voltages and have an order of magnitude higher resolution for a fraction of the cost of a current state-of-the-art SEM. It would provide the first instrument capable of rapidly scanning a surface layer and producing an image with elemental identification at atomic resolution. This disruptive technology has dramatic implications for many sectors other than electron microscopy, including e-beam lithography, genetic sequencing, ultra-high density data storage and focussed ion beam milling. In particular it is expected to be a key enabling tool for the booming sectors of nanotechnology and MNEMS (micro-nano-electromechanical systems). Crucially it could also allow lithography on a scale suitable for true nano-electronics.The physics behind the MONARCH project are beautifully simple: by scaling the device dimensions down to the nano-scale, the voltages, beam energies and aberrations are scaled down proportionally. The system becomes diffraction-limited, rather than aberration-limited, and the lenses can be electrostatic rather than magnetic. These principles have been known for decades, but the realisation of such devices has only been made possible through very recent parallel advances in several nano-machining technologies: improved FIB techniques, the evolution of MEMS technology and scanning probe microscopy (e.g. very short focal length electrostatic lenses). In short these techniques have transformed a thought-experiment into a realistic possibility: ultra-low energy, ultra-high power, ultra-pure e-beams.MONARCH will deliver a prototype operational integrated SEM-on-a-chip system.

Today we live in a world completely dominated by vision with a strong tendency to a constant increase of visual information. However, miniaturization of elements is done by applying similar optical principles known to the designers for many decades. Novel fabrication technologies are permanently developed and applied, but there is no consequent search for new vision principles to fully exploit the newly gained technological capabilities that allow completely new and unexpected fields of application. Main research projects at the Fraunhofer-Institute are related to these topics. Based on a strong experience in optics engineering and a well established facility of optical fabrication technology from macro- to nanoscale novel optical systems are developed. Recently demonstrated bio-inspired vision systems such as planar artificial compound eyes for ultra-compact image acquisition are just a first step in this direction. Within the proposed project, novel vision systems will be designed and manufactured applying electron-beam- and photo-lithography. The main focus of research is related to artificial receptor arrays on a curved basis. This is a highly demanding and at the same time promising topic not only for artificial compound eyes but also for the simplification of classical imaging systems. The major difference of natural and artificial image acquisition systems at this stage is the planar arrangement of the artificial receptor arrays compared to the curved geometry of the natural ones. This is the consequence of todays limitation to planar lithographic patterning technologies. The advantages of a curved basis compared to a planar one are obvious: There are the immanence of a large field of view, the avoiding of off-axis aberrations and declining illumination with increasing field angle. Different technologies are to be applied and evaluated such as laser-lithography on curved surfaces and polymer (flexible) artificial receptor arrays.

NEreO addresses to the study and the development of nano-scale field-effect transistors (i.e. transistors with source-drain inter-electrodes distance varying from hundreds to few nanometers) based on organic molecular films. Organic materials are expected, in the near future, to give rise to a new generation of devices for electronics, photonics and optoelectronics, which will cause a paradigm shift in the production of electronic devices and pave the way for the era of plastic electronics. The main goals of NEreO will be achieved by the original combination of a sophisticated nano-scale fabrication method, namely e-beam lithography, with the unprecedented ability of the Supersonic Molecular Beam Epitaxy deposition technique to control morphology, structure and interfaces of organic films. Besides technological applications, nano-scale organic field-effect transistors will be basic tools for studying charge transport, charge injection and interfaces in organic materials. At Cornell, the fellow will benefit by the presence of several multicultural scientific communities built around national facilities such as the Cornell Nanoscale Science and Technology Facility, the Cornell Center for Materials Research and the Cornel High Energy Synchrotron Source. The fellow will thus attain levels of world-class excellence, satisfying the objectives of the Specific Programme, and acquire the professional independence required to realize the objectives of the Work Programme. The success of NEreO will rely on the multidisciplinary approach pursued together with the state-of-the-art facilities and methodologies adopted. The collaboration between two world-class leading experts will give the chance to Dr Cicoira to grow as a leading scientist with global thinking and ability to promote networks and common strategy for the creation of new facilities.

Dramatic progress has recently been made in the development and convergence of communication and computing technologies. Increasing numbers of networked consumer goods and remote electronic services requiring instant bandwidth are adding a huge burden to existing electronic infrastructure. While optical technologies are being deployed in increasingly diverse information systems, making a major impact on the use of ethernet networks, switching and routing functions remain in the electronic domain. This results in major bottlenecks, and while photonic integrated circuits have the promise to process ultrahigh speed data, stringent cost, power and space constraints have so far prevented deployment.TERABIT CHIPS provides a route map to high capacity active integrated photonic circuits using cutting edge fabrication solutions, advanced photonic design concepts, and sub-system architectures by exploiting parallel processing concepts. While the size of photonic circuits may be constrained by the wavelength of light, interaction lengths for electrooptic phenomena and limits to lithography, exploiting parallelism through wavelength multiplexing within the photonic circuit is identified as a highly efficient way to unleash a potential multiterabit capacity without prohibitive space, management or power overheads. This work proposes the multiwavelength components to realise such circuits.This proposal targets fast nanosecond reconfigurable routers for data traffic as the demonstration technology for prototyping high functionality high capacity integrated circuits. The designs will be deployed to ensure near digital operation with minimal signal impairment. Prototypes will be fabricated and demonstrated for broadband loss-free transmission, and nanosecond scale network reconfiguration times. The technology will exploit cutting edge fabrication, being compatible with off the shelf hardware, linking in to existing physical layer standards.

The goal of the proposed research is the evaluation of an entirely new path to fabricate strained Si nano-devices which are compatible to Si CMOS processing. The idea is to fabricate field effect transistors from strained Si bridges, which have been manufactured by disposing embedded, sacrificial Ge islands (dots). To achieve the required positioning of the Ge dots, templated self assembling will be explored. This approach promises high speed electronics, due to the large mobility of carriers in strained Si, substantially reduced short channel effects, since the thickness of the channel is defined by an air bridge, and an improved thermal conductivity, which is attributed to the all Si device design. Alternative paths for the templated self assembly of Ge dots will be investigated, including e-beam lithography and x-ray interference lithography for the pre-pattern and molecular beam epitaxy as well as chemical vapour deposition for the growth of the ordered Ge islands. Care will be taken to analyse by grazing incidence x-ray diffractometry the strain and its uniformity in the Si bridges before and after removal of the Ge dots as well as after the fabrication of the gate stack. The actual devices will be processed using CMOS compatible Si device technology. The fabrication of the devices will be accompanied by intensive structural and electronic modelling. Special emphasis will be put on the strain distribution in the Si channel prior and after the removal of the dots and its impact on the electronic properties of the devices.To tackle this complex multi-faceted project experts in the field of crystal growth, structural and electronic analysis, device processing, modelling of crystal growth and device simulation will closely cooperate. As a result detailed insights into the correlation between structural and electronic properties in Si nano-electronic devices are expected as well as the successful fabrication of this new device - the disposable dot FET.

The growing importance of nanotechnology for the European Research Area is reflected in the FP6 Thematic Priorities. It is foreseen that most of the projects submitted to the Priority Area 3 (NMP) will need and develop nanopatterning techniques in one way or another. The Emerging Nanopatterning Methods (NaPa) consortium integrates the new patterning methods into one project, both anticipating and responding to the increasing need for technologies, standards and metrology required to harness the new application-relevant properties of engineered structures with nm-scale features. The NaPa consortium complements the deep UV technology by providing low-cost scalable processes and tools to cover the needs of nanopatterning from CMOS back-end processes through photonics to biotechnology. To achieve this, research in three technology strands is proposed: nanoimprint lithography, soft lithography & self-assembly and MEMS-based nanopatterning. While the former is at a crucial embryonic stage, requiring prompt consolidation to yield its first products in one or two years, the other two will result in applications towards the end of the project. Research in three overarching themes required by all strands: Materials, Tools and Simulation will be undertaken. NaPa brings together 35 leading academic and industrial European institutions with a vast amount of recent know-how on nanofabrication, partly developed within FP5. In total, 3500 person months will be contributed by the partners to the project. Complementing R&D, the consortium will design exciting nanoscience and nanoengineering courses to advance the training of the next generation of scientists and engineers and to create a positive attitude towards science among young people. Dissemination activities towards the lay public and sectors underrepresented in nanotechnology form an integral part in NaPa. Thus, NaPa offers a unique opportunity to unleash the potentials of #

Nanotechnology is expected to have a big impact on most of our life. Nanostructred materials become more and more important in various fields such as nanoelectronics, information storage technology etc. At the nanometer scale, i.e. 1-100 nm, material properties are clearly size dependent and new properties are expected. Among functional materials nanoscale ferroelectrics can have a major role because they can be applied in different fields such as sensors, actuators, memory devices and optics. However they cannot be applied to nanometer scale devices before the influence of the lateral size on physical properties will be clarified.In order to find answer for the problems there is a need to have good quality nanoscale structures. It is a challenge to fabricate such structures in this range using both lithography (¿top¿down¿ approach) and self-assembling and self-patterning methods (¿bottom¿up¿ approach). Whereas conventional lithographic systems work usually with a resolution of about 100 nm the bottom-up approaches allow the inexpensive fabrication of structures with size of 10-20 nm. The main goal of the work is preparation of nanosized ferroelectric crystals by self-assembling methods. Successful strategies and routes have been developed to synthesize nanoscale materials of numerous simple systems such as semiconductors or metals. Complex systems such as ferroelectric oxides are not yet systematically addressed, despite of the possibility of discovering new materials with unique properties. Physical route based on the concept of microstructural instability of ultrathin films and chemical routes will be applied to obtain different perovskite crystals. A good quality of nanostructures that lateral dimension can be tuned in nanometer range is expected to fabricate and in future this will allow investigating structure-property relations (e.g. by transmission electron microscopy and piezoresponse force microscopy) and solve ¿size effects¿ problem.

Molecular scale interactions at artificial and naturally occurring responsive surfaces, e.g. the cell membrane, play a crucial rolein many biological and biomedical processes. Responsive surfaces with molecular level control are considered as key to manycrucial problems in nanobiotechnology. We aim at contributing to the development of such surfaces starting from afundamental understanding of structure-property relationships in advanced nanomaterials and processes from the molecularscale. Specifically we propose to investigate the translation of external stimuli into forces in single macromolecules by meansof atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements for two classes of stimuli-responsive polymers, i.e. unique redox-activeorganometallic poly(ferrocenylsilanes) and elastin-based biopolymers. The communication with single molecules occurs viaconformational/dimensional changes of these polymers under stress via changes in chain torsional potential energy landscapeand thus variations in the corresponding macromolecular characteristic ratio. These occur upon redox stimulation or uponchanges in e.g. temperature or pH. The challenging project will be tackled in a rational manner (control instead of trial anderror) by depositing molecules individually at precisely defined positions using scanning probe lithography. Subsequently, thenanomechanical properties of an ensemble of individually addressable molecules will be probed molecule for molecule bysingle molecule force spectroscopy, hence avoiding a convolution of data of many molecules. This approach will also beutilized to selectively pick up individual macromolecules by chemically functionalized tips, followed by AFM measurements thataim at unraveling the effects of several external stimuli on the macromolecules response. Based on the results, responsivesurfaces with molecular level control can be designed for applications in the areas of (bio)sensors, drug delivery,nano/microfluidics, and smart coatings.

Insulin resistance, the key feature of the metabolic syndrome, not only causes type 2 diabetes but also gives rise to its deadliest complications - the cardiovascular disease. A key factor in the development of insulin resistance is the accumulation of triglycerides in liver and muscle, a process that seems to be highly regulated. NACARDIO is a multidisciplinary project aiming to develop and commercialise a nano-biosensor technology, capable of analysing extremely small amounts of protein in small sample volumes. The technology can be used to quantify proteins involved in lipid storage to investigate if any of these proteins are potential biomarkers for the development of insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease. The sensor technology is based on single electron tunnelling (SET), a phenomenon well explored for low temperature applications. State of the art nanofabrication utilising metallic nanoparticles now make this technology platform available for room temperature operation. SET-technology provides unique possibilities for biosensing. Direct electrical detection can be made with sensitivity greater than for any other existing or proposed technique. To achieve the goals of NACARDIO, extensive multidisciplinary work addressing questions at the interface between nanotechnology, physics, electrical engineering, surface chemistry, biotechnology and medical sciences will be performed. Frontline experimental approaches encompassing peptide-stabilised gold nanoparticles, electron-beam lithography, nano-imprint, molecular self-assembly, engineered antibody-fragments, protein expression and fluidic simulations will be employed to fabricate the sensor and ensure biological functionality and usability. The efforts will result in a technology that not only revolutionises cardiovascular research and diagnostics, but also promotes other innovative approaches including analyses of extremely small sample (e.g. single-cell) and real-time monitoring of cell-signalling.

NATAL aims to develop a new core technology of powerful and compact laser sources for the visible and ultraviolet spectral ranges. Such devices are needed for a variety of applications including nano-materials processing, medicine, RGB displays, life sciences, as well as UV lithography and surface chemistry. The lasers envisaged by NATAL represent a radical departure from the existing technologies. Nanophotonic materials and science are the key themes running throughout the proposed programme. The main areas addressed by NATAL include (i) development of innovative nano-structured gain devices (ii) development of advanced micro-optical elements to enable the functionality and control of lasers. Central focus of this programme is the concept of the Optically-Pumped Vertical External Cavity Surface-Emitting Semiconductor Laser (OP-VECSEL). These sources retain the power-scaling, beam quality and intracavity control capability of solid-state lasers, while offer the wavelength versatility, broadband pump absorption and compact gain region supplied by semiconductor technology. NATAL will use the innovative thermally-conductive optical windows bonded directly to the surface of the OP-VECSEL chip. This approach allows to facilitate wavelength extension and power scaling, microchip operation and novel schemes for optical mode control, in addition to integrated device formats with a wide range of functionality. Specific wavelength targets include direct operation in the red (630-670 nm) and frequency-doubled OP-VECSELs operating at 315-335 nm (UV), 470 nm (blue), 520 nm (green), and 610 nm (red). These wavelengths cover important absorption bands in a host of materials significant to nanotechnology (quantum dot and conventional fluorphores, light-emitting polymers, photoresists, biomaterials) and large scale consumer applications.