Michael Gendreau, Hal Amick, and Tao Xu
Nanotechnology
has been defined as research and technology development dealing with particles
and systems with dimensions of approximately 1 to 100 nanometers. Some aspects
of this work require extremely stable environments. Very stringent limits are
often placed on vibration amplitudes. In many cases, a vibration environment
appropriate for semiconductor production is adequate. In other cases, it may
not be stringent enough. In still other cases, it may be too stringent, and
expensive vibration controls may not be cost-effective.
This paper examines the environmental requirements of nanotechnology from the
perspective of a member of the advanced technology building design team, the
vibration consultant. It explores the variety of vibration environments
required by different parts of the nanotechnology community, and how some of
the more demanding of these environments are being provided.
A desirable vibration
environment at a site may be degraded by groundborne propagation of waves from
a variety of sources such as vehicle traffic, rail, central utility plants,
construction, and other research facilities. The nature and potential impact
of some representative examples are discussed, along with a clarification of
the differences between vibration representation for these facilities and that
typically used for other civil applications such as blast and construction
monitoring.
Presented at the 11th International Conference on Soil Dynamics & Earthquake Engineering (11th ICSDEE) & the 3rd International Conference on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering (3rd ICEGE), 7-9 January, 2004, Berkeley, CA, pp. 905-910.