Basic quantum
field theory tells us that a potentially infinite amount of energy
is associated with the vibrations of the zero-point-energy field
in any volume of space. On the other hand, the contemporary commercial
market shows a remarkable absence of devices in any way based upon
the Casimir force. The reasons for this paradox go beyond the technological
challenge to fabricate microdevices actuated by dispersion forces
- a challenge that has already been successfully met in recent experiments
elsewhere. In fact, any winning strategy to commercialize micro-
and nano-devices based upon the Casimir force will have to be grounded
in its association to killer applications with a clear commercial
promise. This dual commitment of the R&D Commercial effort at
InterStellar Technologies Corporation is absolutely central to our
clear goal to go beyond sophisticated applied physics to achieve
significant financial returns from market oriented applications
of our proprietary dispersion force control technologies.
An inexhaustible
resource completely absent from today's market?
A perusal of
available literature on marketable applications of quantum vacuum
engineering in general and Casimir force-based devices in particular
reveals a fascinating paradox: on the one hand, we can consider
the basic physical fact that very large (in principle infinite)
amounts of energy appear to exist anywhere in the universe in the
unit volume in the form of vibrations of the zero-point-energy spectrum.
It is also clear that dispersion forces can become extremely large
in the case of, for instance, two parallel surfaces facing one another.
These two examples represent very strong statements as to the potential
importance of zero-point-energy in the dynamics of the universe,
both on the microscopic and cosmological scales.
On the other
hand, there exist absolutely no commercial, Casimir-force based
devices on the market today - quite a stark contrast with intuitive
expectations based on vacuum physics. Such a conspicuous absence
must first be explained before attempting to craft a realistic strategic
plan whose goal it is to fill this void with lucrative returns in
the short term.
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Reasons
for the paradoxical absence of Casimir force-based devices
At InterStellar
Technologies Corporation, we believe there are two fundamental reasons
Casimir force-based devices have been little researched and not
at all commercialized:
1. The commercial
fortunes of devices based upon dispersion forces have from the very
beginning been tied to those of the micro- and nanotechnology markets.
2. With basically no exception besides InterStellar Technologies,
no profound emphasis has been put on dispersion force control for
technological purposes.
Let us discuss
these two statements in order. Since the Casimir force has typically
been detected in experiments involving two surfaces at mutual distances
of the order of one micrometer (1 micrometer = 1 millionth of a
meter), it is natural to assume that its natural application is
in micro- and nano-devices, whose part sizes are on that same approximate
scale or less. The positive consequence of this fact has been that
the Casimir force has been more and more recognized as a real possible
answer to technological questions in MEMS (microelectromechanical
systems) engineering today. Of course, the negative consequence
of this situation is that, as the MEMS market struggles to identify
killer apps for its wonderful micromachines, so do all candidates
for Casimir-force based devices.
As an example,
although it is certainly a remarkable finding that a MEMS system
could be actuated via the Casimir force in a recent experiment at
Lucent Technologies (see our Resources), this only begs the question
as to what commercially lucrative device can be manufactured in
the short term by exploiting this interesting finding. Likewise,
consider the ongoing groundbreaking experimentation been carried
out at the University of California, Riverside on the Casimir force
between microspheres attached to the tip of an atomic force microscope
and an underlying substratum (see our Resources). Although this
activity has produced a series of extremely precise confirmations
of the theoretical expectations derived from quantum-electro-dynamics,
no commercial device appears to have been conceived as a product
of its findings.
At least in part, this must be due to the fact that, although the
Casimir force evidently represents the most promising approach to
actuation on the submicrometer scale, there is a lack of self-evident
killer applications for any type of microactuation that appears
to be financially promising in the short term. This is not due to
any shortcoming of the Casimir-force based approach per se, but
rather to the fact that MEMS engineering and nanotechnology have
so far been unable to go beyond the hype of applied research and
clearly fulfill all the myriad of expectations that have been placed
on them in several fields. In fact, it is clear to MEMS experts
that only a small percentage of all ongoing research in the field
will ever be commercialized.
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Our
dual R&D Commercialization effort
At InterStellar
Technologies Corporation, we are committed to go well beyond carrying
out fascinating theoretical and applied quantum vacuum engineering
research and to decisively move into the world of commercial applications.
This requires the dual effort to identify not only the most promising
out of our pool of Casimir force-based technology applications,
but also to home in onto those which promise a real potential market
in the short to medium term.
The second point
above brings us to our tactical centerpiece to define and conquer
a lucrative market for Casimir-force based devices: our ever-growing
intellectual property portfolio of proprietary technologies to achieve
dispersion force control. No force can be used for sophisticated
technological applications without the ability to control it and
InterStellar Technologies Corporation was actually founded upon
the commitment to achieve this goal as the key to building truly
useful Casimir force-based machines.
For this reason,
at InterStellar Technologies we assign a deep meaning to the term
"quantum vacuum engineering," that is, the ability to
drastically alter the properties of empty space for specific technological
purposes. As one expects, and as our research is revealing, there
is much more potential to modifying the local energy density of
the quantum vacuum than simply placing two surfaces at a small distance
from one another. It is only by considering the quantum vacuum,
or nothingness, as a resource as real as any other in the world
of engineering that the full commercial promise of Casimir force
based devices can be fully appreciated.
It is this dual
commitment of InterStellar Technologies Corporation to both identify
commercially viable applications of Casimir force devices and to
greatly enhance our ability to engineer the zero-point-field to
serve such applications that represents, we believe, the best promise
to translate fundamental physics know-how into a lucrative commercial
enterprise.
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