cussed earlier under '•Atoms and Molecules" (es- 

 pecially laser chemistry) should make major con- 

 tributions to fire research. Mathematical modeling 

 of the hydrodynamical nature of fires, including 

 chemical reaction phenomena, will receive growing 

 attention at NBS. 



Building research. Building science at NBS en- 

 compasses an unusually wide spectrum of sci- 

 ence, including behavioral psychology, bioacous- 

 tics, analytical chemistry, computer science, heat 

 transfer and thermodynamics, and solid mechan- 

 ics and fluid flow. Significant contributions have 

 been made in recent years in the development of 

 wind data around a building for structural and air 

 leakage analysis, properties of unreinforced ma- 

 sonry walls, progressive collapse, ground heat 

 transfer for underground systems, mathematical 

 modeling of building thermal systems and energy 

 performance, multiphase and multicomponent 

 fluid flow in the plumbing systems, and the physi- 

 cal chemistry of paint and asphalt. 



The central mission for the future of building 

 science at NBS is to develop performance criteria 

 for building design, either as a whole or in its var- 

 ious aspects. Future challenges in building science 

 are the development of technical data useful in 

 the design and evaluation of a building in terms of 

 combined and optimum requirements for habita- 

 bility, durability, serviceability, energy conserva- 

 tion, life-cycle cost, and structural safety, as well 

 as architectural acceptability. 



Electronic technology. NBS addresses the meas- 

 urement and reliability questions that underlie 

 the manufacture and use of all types of solid-state 

 electronic devices, and its research encompasses 

 such diverse disciplines as solid-state physics, 

 physical chemistry, electrical engineering, analyti- 

 cal chemistry, optics, and sensitometry. 



Research in this area at NBS is designed to 

 characterize the effects of dopant and unwanted 

 impurities in semiconductor materials and has 

 resulted in a technique for the detection of sodium 

 atoms in an atmosphere at hitherto unattainable 

 low levels (KM atoms/cm^). NBS scientists also 

 have reinvestigated and corrected old and inaccur- 

 ate conversion procedures for obtaining the impur- 

 ity concentrations in silicon from measurements of 

 its resistivity. This conversion is basic to semicon- 

 ductor device design, performance, and material 

 specification. In other work to provide methods for 

 measuring line widths in photomasks used in the 

 microcircuit fabrication process, the basic theory 

 of optical microscopy was improved so that one- 

 half micrometer line measurements can now be 

 made to an accuracy satisfactory for industrial 

 use. 



The measurement techniques required now as 

 microcircuit device technology breaks into the 



submicrometer-size regime exceed the present 

 state of the art in important areas. These include 

 basic electrical measurements on finished devices 

 (voltage, current, and capacitance), advanced ana- 

 lytical techniques for trace impurities at the part- 

 per-billion level, and dimensional metrology at the 

 submicrometer level. In addition, new methods 

 for testing increasingly complex integrated circuits 

 such as microprocessors both functionally and 

 parametrically need to be developed. This area 

 thus becomes one of major application for meas- 

 urement science at NBS for the future. 



Below are some areas of high scientific poten- 

 tial and interest for future support where the NBS 

 mission is directly involved and where NBS pos- 

 sesses the necessary technical and scientific tal- 

 ent. 



• Measurement science is part and parcel of 

 the substance of each of the areas mentioned 

 below. One area, organic analysis, deserves 

 special attention. Improved instrumental 

 techniques including gas chromatography, 

 mass spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic reso- 

 nance (NMR), and Raman spectroscopy are 

 being applied vigorously in the area of identi- 

 fying and measuring organic species at con- 

 centrations down to the part-per-billion level. 

 The formidable scientific challenges are paral- 

 leled by urgent needs for this capability in 

 environmental water quality and in biomedi- 

 cal research. The need for standards and new 

 techniques for both applications has stimulat- 

 ed a significant research effort. 



• Atomic and molecular science is in ferment, 

 with NBS occupying a significant position at 

 the forefront. Scientific results of great pow- 

 er involving such fundamental concepts as 

 mechanisms underlying chemical reaction 

 rates are being produced with implications 

 for pollution measurements, ozone layer 

 dynamics, very high temperature plasmas, 

 new lasers, and measurement science of val- 

 ue to industrial chemistry. 



• The science of surfaces is gaining scientific 

 momentum due to the development of pow- 

 erful analytical tools, e.g., recent results that 

 give inferences about bond direction of ad- 

 sorbed atoms. Surface science has a high 

 potential for ultimately developing predictive 

 power for catalysis and corrosion applica- 

 tions, and will be important for applications 

 to the properties of small particles where the 

 surface-to-volume ratio is high. NBS has a 

 particularly effective research effort in sur- 

 face science. 



• A major challenge of materials science is to 

 improve our understanding of the relation of 



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