US Patent 7276172 - Nanowire crossbar fabrication using nucleic acid block copolymers

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7276172.html

A primary advantages of nanowire crossbar arrays, which are being proposed for high density memory and computational devices, is that they are based on regular, periodic structures. This patent from Sony uses co-polymer self assembly, which is very good at establishing such periodic structures, to form nanowire crossbars. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method for preparing a nanowire crossbar structure, comprising: forming a composite structure on a substrate, the composite structure comprising a nucleic acid-block copolymer having equidistant nucleic acid-catalyst binding sites and at least one catalyst nanoparticle functionalized to bind specifically to at least one of the nucleic acid-catalyst binding sites; and growing at least one nanowire from the at least one catalyst nanoparticle as part of the nanowire crossbar structure; wherein: the substrate is etched to form grooves for receiving nanowires prior to forming the composite structure on the substrate; and the grooves are formed to a diameter of from about 2 nm to about 40 nm.