[extropy-chat] Nano chain mail

[Adrian Tymes]

--- "Robert J. Bradbury" <bradbury at aeiveos.com> wrote:
> BTW: I have proposed the "impossible" in molecular
> fabrication --
> molecular chain mail.  It is likely to be
> significantly more difficult
> to manufacture than Fine Motion Controllers.  If
> someone could get
> it done by self-assembly then my hat would really be
> off to them
> (and I don't take my hat off lightly).  If someone
> got it to be
> done by directed assembly I would believe they had
> really done a
> good job at avoiding the fat-fingers problem.  In
> either case
> such an accomplishment should merit a Nobel Prize.

Well...this isn't quite *molecular* chain mail, but
at the limits of e-beam lithography (~25 nm), it's
not that far away...

Basically, 3-D MEMS, using 7 layers.  Picking an
arbitrary axis, the "horizontal" links are forged from
layers 1-5, while the "vertical" links are forged from
layers 3-7.  For each layer, you add a new layer of
whatever material you're working with, attach it to
the layer beneath by some means (say, by slightly
melting it) (first layer skips this, of course), then
etch away the appropriate pattern, filling in the
area you've just etched out with some sacrificial
material (just enough so that the next layer only
attaches to this one - for example, that layer 3
doesn't attach to layer 1 thanks to the sacrificial
material on layer 2) (final layer can skip this, of
course).  Make sure the features are far enough apart
that the level attachment process doesn't bind the
rings together (which is why each link is made of 5
layers: a central layer for the other direction's
link to pass through, an empty layer on either side,
then the actual "horizontal" or "vertical" elements on
either side of that).  Actual manufacture would
probably turn one of these link sets on its side, so
as to do it in only five layers (which would make the
manufacture faster and cheaper).

If you're seriously interested, I could score you a
sample - probably at a larger resolution (say, at
least ~1 micron feature size or larger) so you could
actually see it with an optical microscope (I could
make it smaller, but facilities to verify the
merchandise beyond the limits of optical microscopy
are expensive), and you'd have to pay for the
manufacture (probably in the low $XX,XXX range).