US Patent 7192873 - Nanoparticles as sacrificial material

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7192873.pdf

In microfabrication it is common to use polymer or oxide thin films as sacrificial material to form spacers which are later removed to form 3-D microstructures. This patent from Samsung does the same thing on the nanoscale using nanoparticles instead of thin films as the sacrificial material to form nanoscale diodes, transistors, or other electronic devices. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method of manufacturing a nano scale semiconductor, the method comprising: dispersing uniformly a plurality of nano particles on a semiconductor substrate; forming an insulating layer covering the nano particles on the semiconductor substrate; partly removing upper surfaces of the nano particles and the insulating layer; selectively removing the nano particles from the insulating layer; and partly forming doped semiconductor layers in the semiconductor substrate by doping the semiconductor substrate through spaces formed by removing the nano particles.