If this (topdown) manufacturing process is to be based on the most modern forms of deposition (including epitaxy), e-beam or ultra-deep UV lithography and precision etching, the mainstay of microelectronics and optoelectronics fabrication, then there are strict limits described below for which one-off fabrication is possible, but manufacture is not.

FORBES: Are There Physical Limits to Nanotechnology?

For such an apparently dull subject, Witold Rybczynski's brief history is a charming work that gracefully threads its way back to the origins of precision manufacturing and, in the process, the origins of the modern world.

ECONOMIST: Non-fiction