Nanotechnology: What It Means to Oregon

Nanotechnology: The Next Advancement in Moore’s Law

Nanotechnology is a complex topic and a current popular buzz word. The word is used in the press so much, with little more definition than “very tiny,” that it’s not surprising if the response isn’t so much a yawn as, “Oh, please, we’ve heard this word so many times already.”

As one person in the microelectronics industry stated, “Companies have been working in the area of microelectronics for decades. The term 'nanotechnology' is just a rebranding, a repackaging of this next stage of advancement.” In other words, the next advancement in Moore’s Law.

To cut through the buzz-word element is to understand what is at the core of this technology: nanoparticles. These particles are no larger than 100 nanometers, thousands of times smaller than a red blood cell. To explain it another way, a nanoparticle is to a red blood cell as a red blood cell is to a football field. Consider that one entrepreneurial biomedics company uses silver ionic nanoparticles that are about 10 nanometers in size in its medical devices.

Applications of nanotechnology

So how are companies using these nanoparticles? In biomedics, for example, in products to better facilitate wound healing. Or in the apparel industry, in producing wrinkle-free, stain-free pants. In the next stage of advancement in Moore’s Law, nanotechnology is helping push the limits of integrated circuit complexity. In 1992, it was considered incredible that the wiring used in semiconductors was thinner than a strand of hair.

Today, nanocarbon wires in semiconductors self-assemble in a circuit.

As the biomedics entrepreneur said, “If there was a window manufacturer in this area, I bet he would have a development process lab looking at this ‘small stuff,’ studying how to incorporate these particles in its windows, to produce self-cleaning windows.” According to him, most companies in Oregon and Southwest Washington have at least some development labs looking at how these small particles can benefit whatever it is they do.

Is nanotechnology really a technology?

Because nanoparticles can be used in anything from medical devices to semiconductors to apparel, it’s akin to referring to plastics as a technology, or electricity. In the same way, nanotechnology is perhaps a misnomer except that it describes “small stuff.” What we are really talking about here is describing a class of material that can be used in many different applications, from medical to high-tech to consumer to heavy industrial.

Another perspective on nanotechnology

A different perspective is what some might consider the “evangelistic” perspective. According to one member of the local industry, who works in the area of providing tools to measure nanoparticles, “The Pacific Northwest leads the country in the investment dollars going into nanotechnology. If you track the year-over-year growth of these dollars, the Pacific Northwest has the highest growth in dollars going into nanotechnology over other regions in the country.”

Success of nanotechnology as a cluster

This person attributes the dollars coming into this region to the success of the nanotechnology cluster. Michael Porter, a professor at the Harvard Business School and considered an expert in competitive strategy, said that “clusters are geographically concentrated groups of companies and institutions in the same field who work together to improve the competitive advantage in their cluster area.”

A common thread throughout Linda Barney’s article on the research and development happening within nanotechnology is the collaboration between industry, universities and government to leverage the unique resources of this region; the critical mass of companies; talented people – and, as importantly, leadership.

The visionaries in nanotechnology - ONAMI
Robert D. “Skip” Rung, executive director and president of the Oregon Nanoscience and Microelectronics Institute (ONAMI), “combines senior-level executive experience in both academia and industry,” as noted in Linda Barney’s article on ONAMI. ONAMI is the state- and federally funded initiative and facility dedicated to nanotechnology and nanoscience.

Skip Rung worked for Hewlett-Packard for 25 years, most recently as director of research and development for HP’s Corvallis, Oregon facility ­– which is both headquarters for HP’s world-leading inkjet technology as well as HP’s most advanced and capable facility. HP itself has donated a building specifically to ONAMI, for this collaborative effort between industry, universities and government. Another company, Electro Scientific Industries, has donated over a half a million dollars in equipment, along with donating the time of its top R&D engineers.

This collaboration between high-tech companies along with the universities is being facilitated through ONAMI. As one industry person stated, “Were it not for ONAMI, we would be non-competitive, as far as technology, and we would be continuing to compete with each other – both in the industry and university perspectives.”

Venture capitalist perspective
One person not to leave out is the chairman of the board of ONAMI, David Chen. Chen, a venture capitalist for OVP Partners, was part of the initiative for ONAMI. Chen sees ONAMI as part of the “gold rush,” a smart investment for his business and Oregon. With Skip Rung’s industry experience and Chen’s perspective on where to bet the dollars, ONAMI and this cluster could very well put Oregon on the map. See Oregon Business Magazine’s May coverage of Chen and his vision for ONAMI at http://www.oregonbusiness.com/.docs/action/detail/rid/13407/pg/10003.

And companies are not only collaborating locally, but also internationally. Certainly companies want to protect their intellectual properties and patents. Yet within Oregon and internationally, in leveraging each company’s expertise and knowledge base, revenue grows exponentially for each company.

Oregon’s university system – a virtual university
Not only are high-tech companies collaborating, but the university system is collaborating as well. And all this is with an eye toward setting this region apart, making it the hub where people from around the world come for the latest information in nanotechnology. In terms of the university system working together, one industry perspective is that we have a “virtual university” – a mega university. Unlike, say, University of Texas at Austin with maybe 50,000 students, we have several universities working together ­– without duplicating equipment, with each university conducting research in its own specific area of nanotechnology.

Addressing Oregon’s weaknesses as a strong cluster base
Porter, the expert on clusters, has indicated that Oregon has more industry clusters than would be normally expected for a state of this size but that they are less developed. Porter has made it a point to say that, “The real challenge is significantly upgrading the clusters you have. Prosperity has little to do with the mix of clusters in a region but has everything to do with the sophistication and productivity of clusters.”

Yet nanotechnology could be the very cluster that has the productivity and sophistication to put Oregon on the map. Porter, among others, has said that one of Portland’s weaknesses is the lack of a world-renowned research university. With the industry leaders who have moved into the academic world within Oregon, could this be the spark that lights a fire? Could state and federal funding, high-level industry involvement ­– along with the backing of visionaries such as David Chen – be the key elements in bringing the gold rush to the Oregon university system, and be the catalyst in raising the caliber of the university system in Oregon to not just a national, but international, level as well?

The World Is Flat - is there a there there?
One industry person alluded to Thomas L. Friedman’s book, The World Is Flat, with companies collaborating not just nationally, but internationally.

Nonetheless, Fred Phillips ­– former professor and founding head of the Management in Science and Technology school at the Oregon Graduate Institute (OGI) and former member of the SAO board of directors ­– said, “If Portland doesn’t fight hard to keep and nurture every distinctive advantage is has, people of 2025 will say of Portland as Gertrude Stein remarked about Oakland, California, in The Columbia World of Quotations: ‘There is no there there.’” (Stein spent her childhood in Oakland.)

Phillips is currently professor and associate dean at the Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands. He has recently published a book called Social Culture and High Tech Economic Development: The Technopolis Columns, which covers technology-based regional development.

One entrepreneur questioned the term “nanotechnology,” saying that nanotechnology refers to “a size of matter. And a size is not a cluster.” Yet even he acknowledges that ONAMI is the hub, along with companies within driving distance, that help him answer the difficult questions and help him to refine his product.

The collaboration and geographic location of companies involved in nanotechnology, along with the research universities, could be the very thing that puts Oregon on the map.

About the author
Gerrie Power worked at Intel Corporation in marketing, editing and writing and has an M.A. in professional writing from Carnegie Mellon University. She is based in Portland, Oregon. For questions and comments, email gerrie@powercommunication.biz.