Korea's Nano Future

This article highlights key points of a Korea's 10-year plan in nanotechnology domain. The hope is that newly emerging nanotechnology field will offer a breakthrough opportunity to upgrade Korea's position as a global industrial power. The goal of this 10-year, $1.5 billion plan is to foster technological advances in nanotechnology that can establish Korea as a world leader in this emerging class of technologies. Under the Korea Nanotechnology Initiative, the government has launched several projects under the banner of the Frontier Program. Another project, the Center for Nanostructured Materials, organizes a research program aimed at developing nanostructured materials for structural applications, environmental and energy applications, and information technologies using both top 2 down and bottom-up processes. Nanoelectronics devices such as carbon nanotube-based transistors are being investigated as terabit memory devices. Korean facilities are conducting research on next-generation storage systems based on scanning probe microscopy and perpendicular magnetic recording to learn more about terabit storage density. Engineers claim that to compete in the new digital economy, it is critically important for a nation such as Korea to be able to manufacture and engineer devices down to nanometre dimensions.