US Patent 7087946 - Nanowire Gap Circuits

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7087946.pdf

HP is very active in the development of molecular crossbar arrays which are useful in creating ultradense molecular memory devices and reconfigurable electronic devices. Usually these crossbar arrays employ crossing rows of nanowires and columns of nanowires fromed in different layers with molecular material formed between the different layers. This patent exploits self-assembling manufacturing techniques to form the row and column nanowires in a common layer with a gap formed between them for placement of the molecular material. Claim 1 reads:

1. An electric device comprising: a first elongated nanowire on and touching an insulating surface and a second elongated nanowire on and touching the same side of said insulating surface, said first nanowire having a first straight portion and said second nanowire having a second straight portion, said first straight portion and said second straight portion forming a T-shaped structure, said first and second straight portions separated by a gap of between 0.4 nm and 10 nm.