© 1999 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Nanomedicine, Volume I: Basic Capabilities, Landes Bioscience, Georgetown, TX, 1999

9.4.5.2 Metamorphic Screw Drive

A nanorobot with a hydrophobic (e.g., diamondoid) metamorphic surface may locally reconfigure its prow in the shape of a screw having two traveling raised ridges, with a thread width at least as wide as the plasma membrane plus the plasma membrane skeleton or cell cortex, perhaps 30-50 nm thick (Section 8.5.3.11). After the screw has initially penetrated the surface and the first thread course is locked in place (Section 9.4.5.1), the thread pattern may then be translated toward the rear of the nanorobot, allowing the device to screw itself into the cell's interior (Fig. 9.29). A ~100 micron/sec transit speed requires <0.001 pW for a 1 micron² cross-section nanorobot to overcome viscous drag (Section 9.4.2.4) and ~0.01 pW to operate a 100 nm wide section of metamorphic surface assuming ~0.35 micron² of surface dissipating ~0.03 pW/micron² (Sections 5.3.1.4 and 5.3.6). Cell entry is completed in ~10 millisec.

Last updated on 21 February 2003