US Patent 7301779 - CNT chip interconnects

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7301779.html

In order to connect multiple electronic circuit chips together a variety of methods are known using solder and wire bond connections. This patent from Infineon teaches using carbon nanotubes as electrical interconnect elements to provide better mechanical flexibility and current carrying ability than prior interconnect materials. Claim 1 reads:

1. An electronic chip assembly comprising: a first electronic chip; a second electronic chip; the first electronic chip having a plurality of external chip contacts to which a multiplicity of nanotubes are applied in order to make contact between the first electronic chip and the second electronic chip; the second electronic chip having a plurality of external chip contacts that are free of nanotubes and that can be brought into contact with the nanotubes that have been applied to the external chip contacts of the first electronic chip; and wherein the nanotubes of one external chip contact of the first electronic chip are brought into contact with one external chip contact of the second electronic chip.