US Patent 7087523 - Nanofabrication Using Melting and Resolidification of Nanoparticles

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7087523.pdf

Printing techniques are more and more often being applied to achieve nanoscale fabrication as an alternative to the traditional silicon processing methodologies, which are expensive and require specialized environments (clean room, low pressure, high temperature, etc.) This patent employs an inkjet type mechanism to print nanoparticle containing fluid in a desired pattern. The nanoparticles are melted by a laser and then solidified to form desired nanostrutures.
Claim 1 reads:

1. A method fo producing a structure on a substrate comprising the steps of a) depositing drops of a suspension onto a substrate, wherein in said suspension comprise nanoparticles of a material suspended in a liquid; and, wherein said a substrate lacks recesses in the region where said drops are deposited onto said substrate; and, b) exposing said nanoparticles an said substrate to at least one localized spot of laser light such that said nanoparticles are at least partially melted by said at least one localized spot of laser light; and, c) solidifying said at least partially melted nanoparticles, forming thereby said structure on said substrate.