“Nanotechnology is a set of technologies on the nanometre scale, not a single technological field,” say the authors, Masatsura Igami and Teruo Okazaki in their report for the OECD.
Areas that fall within its purview include electronics, optoelectronics, medicine and biotechnology, measurements and manufacturing, environment and energy and nanomaterials.
Most applications, especially nanotechnologies related to electronics and optoelectronics, are the result of a top-down process, where nanostructures are developed to improve or advance existing technologies.
There is little cross-fertilisation between these aspects of nanotechnology, because they are pushing the technological frontier within their own separate fields.
Meanwhile a second group of nanotechnologies is developing by a bottom-up process, fuelled by scientific discoveries such as carbon nanotubes and fullerenes. But at this stage, these are having a relatively low impact on applications.
Rising tide of patents
The number of nanotechnology patent applications to the EPO has been increasing since the 1980s, apart from a temporary stagnation in the early 1990s. The increase is especially marked since the end of the 1990s.
The US, EU and Japan have almost the same share of nanotechnology patent applications to the EPO, but this translates into relatively more nanotech applications for the US and Japan.
The applications show also that nanotechnology remains largely the preserve of academe: higher education and government sectors have a notably larger share than the EPO average for all patent applications.
The contribution of public sector research has become particularly important since the middle of the 1990s. Because of differences in national science, technology and innovation systems, the shares of government and higher education sectors vary from country to country. The share held by the government sector is the largest in France and Japan.
Universities are responsible for a higher proportion of filings in the UK, the US and the Netherlands. The private non-profit sector holds the largest share in Germany.
The current front-runners in nanotechnology are largely determined by pre-existing strengths. So Japan, for example, has the largest share in electronics, optoelectronics, and environment and energy. The US has the lion’s share of nanotech patents relating to medicine and biotechnology, measurements and manufacturing and nanomaterials.
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