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The purpose is to report on a Danish nano‐science and nano‐technology foresight project carried out in 2004.

The foresight process had the following key elements: review of international technology foresight projects on nano‐technology; mapping of Danish nano‐science and nano‐technology; broad internet survey among interested parties; expert reports; workshops related to the expert reports; analysis of the dynamics of innovation within nano‐technology; survey on hazards and environmental and ethical aspects; group interviews with members of the public.

The article reflects on the following methodological issues: domain classification and its influence on conclusions; the use of statements or hypotheses; trustworthiness of the foresight process and its recommendations.

Recommendations from the project have already been used in decision‐making on R&D funding and in strategic deliberation in publicly funded institutions conducting R&D. Others are expected to be used for decision‐making, and some are being discussed in research councils and ministries or are being investigated and developed further. Moreover, the foresight process has created broader awareness of, and debate especially about, the hazardous aspects of nano‐technology among researchers and decision makers.

The article contribute the to the European experiences with national level foresight exercises. The case and the findings are of value for science and innovation policy makers, foresight practitioners and scolars within the field.

The purpose of this paper is to produce non-conductive copolymers of N-vinyl carbazole (NVCz) and methyl ethyl ketone formaldehyde resin (MEKFR) by the electroinduced Ce (IV) polymerization method and the electrochemical oxidization of the formed copolymer to produce their conductive green form. The non-conductive and conductive copolymers were characterized by using Fourier transform infrared, solid-state conductivity and spectroelectrochemical, chronoamperometric, cyclovoltammetric and electrochemical impedance spectroscopic measurements.

The chronoamperometric electropolymerization of white, insulator form of the copolymer of NVCz and MEKFR (copolymer 1) on to Pt electrode was carried out and the green coloured film of the MEKFR-ox-NVCz copolymer (copolymer 11) was produced in the doped and conductive form. All reactions were performed in dichloromethane containing 0.1 M B_U4NClO₄. Copolymer 11 films obtained on the surface of the working electrode were removed and washed in acetonitrile and dried at room temperature before characterization. The results were compared with the copolymer obtained by electrochemical oxidation of MEKF-R and NVCz (copolymer 2).

The insulating copolymer of NVCz and MEKFR (copolymer 1) was produced by the electroinduced Ce (IV) polymerization method and converted into the conductive form electrochemically on the surface of the Pt electrode (copolymer 11). The polymers were characterized by electrochemical, spectrophotometric and conductivity measurements. The ionization potentials, optical band gap, peak potentials Ep, doping degree and specific capacitance of the copolymer 11 were obtained. The conductivity of the copolymer 11 is lower than the PNVCz and higher than the copolymer obtained by electrochemical oxidation of MEKF-R and NVCz (copolymer 2). The copolymer 11 has a lower onset potential than PNVCz and the copolymer 1 and slightly higher band gap than PNVCz. The capacitive behaviours of the copolymer 11 were very close to PNVCz.

This study focuses on obtaining a green and conductive form of the copolymer of NVCz and MEKFR with the electrochemical method by using a white and insulator form of the same copolymer.

This work provides technical information for the synthesis of conducting copolymer of NVCz and MEKFR.

These copolymers may be in the field of PNVCz applications such as photoconductivity and corrosion inhibition.

Electroinduced Ce (IV) MEKFR redox system was applied for the polymerization of NVCz monomer to produce the copolymer 1. The conductive copolymer 11 was synthesized through electrochemical oxidative coupling of the carbazole groups of the copolymer 1.

The purpose of this paper is to design an automatic press-fit instrument to realize precision assembly and connection quality assessment of a small interference fitting parts, armature.

In this paper, an automatic press-fit instrument was developed for the technical problems of reliable clamping and positioning of the armature, automatic measurement and adjustment of the attitude and evaluation of the connection quality. To compensate for the installation error of the equipment, corresponding calibration method was proposed for each module of the instrument. Assembly strategies of axial displacement and perpendicularity were also proposed to ensure the assembly accuracy. A theoretical model was built to calculate the resistant force generated by the non-contact regions and then combined with the thick-walled cylinder theory to predict the press-fit curve.

The calibration method and assembly strategy proposed in this paper enable the press-fit instrument to achieve good alignment and assembly accuracy. A reasonable range of press-fit curve obtained from theoretical model can achieve the connection quality assessment.

This instrument has been used in an armature assembly project. The practical results show that this instrument can assemble the armature components with complex structures automatically, accurately, in high-efficiency and in high quality.

This paper provides a technical method to improve the assembly quality of small precision interference fitting parts and provides certain methodological guidelines for precision peg-in-hole assembly.

This study aims to replace current multi-layer and coplanar wire crossing methods in QCA technology to avoid fabrication difficulties caused by them.

Quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) is one of the newly emerging nanoelectronics technology tools that is proposed as a good replacement for complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology. This technology has many challenges, among them being component interconnection and signal routing. This paper will propose a new wire crossing method to enhance layout use in a single layer. The presented method depends on the central cell clock phase to enable two signals to cross over without interference. QCADesigner software is used to simulate a full adder circuit designed with the proposed wire crossing method to be used as a benchmark for further analysis of the presented wire crossing approach. QCAPro software is used for power dissipation analysis of the proposed adder.

A new cost function is presented in this paper to draw attention to the fabrication difficulties of the technology when designing QCA circuits. This function is applied to the selected benchmark circuit, and the results show good performance of the proposed method compared to others. The improvement is around 59, 33 and 75% compared to the best reported multi-layer wire crossing, coplanar wire crossing and logical crossing, respectively. The power dissipation analysis shows that the proposed method does not cause any extra power consumption in the circuit.

In this paper, a new approach is developed to bypass the wire crossing problem in the QCA technique.

This study aims to contribute to the comprehension of managerial implications in all the new convergences fields: bioinformation technology (BIT), nanoinformation technology (NIT), nanobiotechnology (NBT) and bioinformation–nanotechnology (BINT). The phenomenon of convergence that significantly impacted economies and societies in the information technology era has continued to be combined with new technologies such as nanotechnology and biotechnology. Many countries have tried to seize the initiative to strengthen the future competitiveness, and it become increasingly important for roles of companies to expand applications of the new convergence.

From a company-based perspective, the study quantifies leading companies’ degree of influence in each convergence field.

However, the result shows that companies’ influences are not mature enough to transfer the initiatives from both the NBT and BINT convergence fields. In addition, this study presents a perceivable framework for companies/institutions by identifying which technological fields the companies/institutions are influential in and what degrees of technological impact are shaped among them. As a result, this allows companies/institutions to recognize their environments squarely.

This study applied the replacement process that can reinforce the investigation of the extent to which a firm has a significant ability to influence others directly and indirectly. From the methodology perspective, such replacement can intensely display the structure and the extent of competition among firms. Therefore, the results provide an explicit information to understand the overall business situation.

Research paper

The purpose of this paper is to electrically examine the quality of thin thermally grown SiO₂ with thickness variation, on Si‐face of 4H‐SiC <0001> (having 50 μm epitaxial layer) by current‐voltage (I‐V) and capacitance‐voltage (C‐V) methods.

Metal‐oxide‐silicon carbide (MOSiC) structures with varying oxide thickness have been fabricated on device grade 4H‐SiC substrate. Ni has been used for gate metal on thermally oxidized Si‐face and a composite layer of Ti‐Au has been used for Ohmic contact on the highly doped C‐face of the substrate. Each structure was diced and bonded on a TO‐8 header with a suitable wire bonding for further testing using in‐house developed LabVIEW‐based computer aided measurement setup.

The leakage current of fabricated structures shows an asymmetric behavior with the polarity of gate bias ( + V or −V at the anode). A strong relation of oxide thickness and temperature on effective barrier height at SiO₂/4H‐SiC interface as well as on oxide charges have been established and reported in this paper.

The paper focuses on the development of 4H‐SiC based device technology in the fabrication of MOSiC‐based integrated structures.