A Study of the Linkages between Technology and Science: A Case Study of Nano- Electronics

The distinction between the concepts of science and technology has made it necessary for economic and scientific policymakers to know the realms of these two areas. The relationship between the science and the technology is changing and also is variable depending on the circumstances, scientific areas, and from one time to another one. The current research aims at studying the growth trend and the scientific and technical strength of USPTO-patents in Nano-electronic.
This is a descriptive-analytical study, which uses scientometrics approaches. The Research material consists of all Nano-electronics patents in the USPTO database. For the purpose of data retrieval, several searches for different spelling forms of Nano-electronic keywords were conducted, and the data was extracted through c-sharp programming.
Findings: The results of the growth trend analysis reveal a considerable increase in the number of Nano-Electronics patents, especially from 2000 onwards. The number of references listed in these patents has also increased significantly since 2002. Based on these findings, the science linkage indicator is considerable compared to other disciplines. On the other hand, the technology dependence on Nano-Electronic patents is twice more than their scientific strength, which demonstrates the interconnection between Nano-Electronic inventions and the previous technologies. The more technical aspects of nan electronics may be due to the applied nature of this field and the amount of associated patents.