Picotechnologies: technologies for the atomic scale

What is the minimum number of atoms needed to build a calculator, a mechanical machine, a memory, a measuring instrument or a transmitter? Picotechnologies (pico = 10 ^–12 ), or technologies for the atomic scale, refer to a set of skills and techniques emerging in certain research laboratories and among some manufacturers of scientific instruments, which will enable machines to be built with just the right number of atoms for their operation, i.e. with picometric precision.

Picotechnology brings together atom-by-atom, molecule-by-molecule manufacturing tools, ultimate characterization resources, and then nano-communication and nano-packaging, all necessary to exploit the physical resources present in a single aggregate of atoms, in a single molecule or macromolecule, in order to create individual molecule-machines active in a large number of different environments: on a surface, in space or inside a living cell.

To paraphrase a well-known expression, there's a lot of space left below the nanometer. Picotechnologies aim to explore this space.