Local Machinery Makers Turn to Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is becoming ever more important to the continued development of Taiwan's machinery industry, which is finding its entry into this emerging field relatively easy because of its long-term experience in the commercialization of advanced technologies.

The Mechanical Industry Research Laboratories (MIRL), a unit of the government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), is helping with this process by boosting its development of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and precision machinery.

MIRL has been concentrating on the development of advanced manufacturing technologies, especially core technologies such as micron and nanometer processing. Over the past several years the laboratories have also been encouraging domestic machinery manufacturers to participate in international industrial-cooperation projects as a means of heightening their technological levels.

Such projects have helped some local companies develop critical technologies, which has led MIRL to predict that Taiwan will catch up with the technology of the industrially advanced countries before too long.

The upgrading of precision machinery is expected to bring on the booming development of automation technologies used in the electrical machinery, computer, and instrument industries. It will also lead to the rapid development of such high-tech industries as electronics, optoelectronics, and biotechnology.

Nanotechnology is one of the most important of the new-century technologies, and it is expected to generate an estimated US$1 trillion in global production value per year. In Taiwan, the industrial, academic, and governmental sectors are all devoting strenuous efforts to the development of this pioneer technology.

Since nanotechnology can create new features for many materials and minimize the size of various kinds of parts and components, it is an attractive means of upgrading manufacturing technologies and micro-electro-mechanical systems with microelectronic control.

ITRI has been working on the development of nano-processing technology for years with the aim of helping domestic industries elevate the level of their precision processing. The institute recently applied nanotechnology to surface-cleaning processes used in the electronics industry, and has transferred the resulting technology to domestic manufacturers to help them develop the precision-processing technology they need for the production of organic liquid-crystal display panels.