South Korea

Government-Funded Nanotechnology R&D

During the 1980s, small teams of scientists undertook research on the area of membrane and nanocrystals, which led to the first large-scale government-funded project in nanoscience technology, called the Microstructure Technology R&D Project, in 1996. Launched as one of the four R&D Programs for Development of Promising Fundamental Technologies and funded by the Ministry of Science & Technology, this project covered several areas of nanoresearch that later became a major part of various government-funded nanotechnology R&D projects.

With the creation of the Nanotechnology Development Plan of 2001 and the Nanotechnology Promotion [Page 731]Act of 2002, nanoscience technology development took off, generating an impressive array of achievements. Between the planning of the first and second phase Nanotechnology Development Plans (2001 and 2005), the level of nanotechnology in comparison to that of the United States rose from 25 percent to 66 percent, the world ranking of SCI citations from eighth to fifth, the patent rankings in nanotechnology from ninth to fifth, and the number of university programs from 3 to 31. As of 2008, the ranking of the number of patents is second, just after the United States. Also, as of 2009, the number of tertiary education programs in nanoscience and technology increased to 55, with total enrollment of 7,105.

While the 2001 Development Plan and the 2002 Promotion Act set out general goals and policy guidelines for nanoscience and technology development, the Nanotechnology Roadmap (2006–20), published in 2008, contains a list of 163 specific technologies to concentrate R&D funding on in the four areas: nanomaterials (4), nanodevices (13), nanobio (17), and nanomanufacturing (119), each of which is in turn categorized as three types of technologies (infrastructure, fundamental, and commercial).

Major public R&D programs in nanotechnology include three core nanotechnology projects included in the 21st Century Frontier Program, which is a set of long-term large-scale national R&D programs launched in 1999 with the goal of developing strategic technologies to compete with advanced countries on equal footings. First, the Tera-level Nanodevice Development Program (TND), set up in 2000, aims to develop ultra-fast, highly integrated, and ultralow-power nanotechnology devices as a way to overcome impending technical limitations of semiconductor manufacturing. TND has been very successful in developing several world's best or world's first technological products, including tera-level memory devices and separation technology for semiconducting carbon nanotubes. Second, the Nanostructured Materials Technology Development Program was set up to develop environment-friendly high-strength materials, highly efficient nanomaterials, and optical nanomaterials for information infrastructure. Third, the Nanoscale Mechatronics & Manufacturing Technology Development Program was created to develop process technologies and equipments for nanoscale manufacturing and measurement such as nanopattern processing technology and nanoprobe application technology.

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