Thursday, October 19, 2006

US Patent 7122461 - Nanofabrication Using Carbon Nanotubes and DNA

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7122461.pdf

Nanotubes and DNA have separately been proposed as candidates for new forms of nanoelectronics. This patent from Intel combines these materials for facilitating the selective placement of nanotubes on a substrate by functionalizing nanotubes with DNA.

Claim 14 reads:


14. A method to assemble an interconnect, comprising: functionalizing a first end and a second end of a first set of carbon nanotubes with a first set of DNA segments; providing a platform having an individually addressable array of nano-electrodes, the electrodes having a surface with a second set of DNA segments that are complementary to the first set of DNA segments; applying voltages to the electrodes to couple the first end of the carbon nanotubes with the electrodes to form a first layer selectively; coupling a second set of carbon nanotubes having a third set of DNA segments to the second end of the first set of carbon nanotubes to form a second layer; wherein coupling comprises selectively coupling specific nano-materials to the semiconductor device being formed by applying different electrical potentials to individually addressable electrodes and by providing nano-materials of varied lengths and dimensions; repeating a coupling of additional sets of carbon nanotubes to the first and second sets of carbon nanotubes until the interconnect is formed on the platform; detaching the interconnect from the platform; disposing the detached interconnect on a substrate; and plating the interconnect.