Assessing the true cost of delivering nano-hype

Engineering and technology can have a massive impact on productivity and economic growth so it is important to track the likely course of new technologies as they grow from concept to maturity. Nowhere is this more important than in the case of nano-technologies. This broad category ranges from incremental CMOS developments to highly speculative new materials with novel functionality. However, roadmaps for strategic development need to be built on more than hype and promises. This paper describes a simple tool to measure the maturity of new technologies in many economic as well as technical domains. It ascribes one of ten stages of maturity to fourteen different parameters. A review of non-volatile memory technologies is used as a benchmark. The tool has been used to demonstrate technology evolution within academic courses and it has also been applied within short industry courses.