Last year, $3 billion was invested in nanotechnology. Furthermore, the National Nanotech Initiative (NNI) 2004 budget increased by nearly ten percent. These investments will soon pay off in the form of big screen displays.

Jaskie is excited about the latest NED prototype for several reasons. For one, he’s been working on it for about six years. "We almost went into business with the first prototype," Jaskie said. But, the company decided that because microtip technology provided only an acceptable display at 20 inches, it couldn’t compete with LCDs. The team moved on to use nanoscale tips, which, like most scientific endeavors, had a list of formidable challenges.

"We mixed carbon nanotubes with ink," Jaskie said of one process, "but decided printing wasn’t the right technology." Over the next couple of years, Jaskie said, "We went through families of catalysts to find out how to grow [the nanotubes] at low temperatures, and on glass." Once the team of ten full-time display researchers and about a dozen other support staff (semiconductor and lithography experts among them) in the Arizona lab hit on the right catalyst -- now a proprietary Motorola formula—the big picture really came into view.

Moto’s "Secret Sauce"

The nanotubes grow in straight lines, looking rather like bristles on a hairbrush, in a temperature-controlled chamber filled with a mixture of hydrogen, methane, and the proprietary catalyst. "How we make the [chemical] composite is the secret sauce," Jaskie said. "Without the catalyst, we had to grow them in very high temperatures -- above [1,800 degrees Fahrenheit]." The "secret sauce" allows successful processing at temperatures less than half as hot. "When we turn off the heat and the gas, they stop growing," Jaskie said.

With the recipe in hand, Motorola is now entertaining potential partners to license the technology. Existing production lines could be modified to crank out NED screens, Jaskie said. "If you already have a plasma line, it would be a comparatively easy conversion. You’d still use about half of the [production] line. You’d have to change some steps, but you’d have fewer steps, and the remaining steps would be simpler."

A shorter, simpler process should equal savings for manufacturers and consumers, but that’s not all. Jaskie pointed out that one of the high-cost factors in making plasma displays is the expensive drive electronics. "Nano is cheaper in that way -- there’s a savings in the electronic components, too," Jaskie said. "The hope is that we could be looking at a large -- 60 inches or larger -- display, at prices people would really pay." Jaskie felt confident enough to say that a NED TV could cost considerably less than $3,000.

When asked to speculate about how NED technology might be used in other applications -- fuel cells or biological tests -- Jaskie said, "We could use them to monitor for all kinds of toxins, put cheap sensors all over the city on light posts," which could alert us to hazardous chemicals or viruses in the air.