US Patent 7335603 - Vertical CNT array formed in silicon porous layer

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7335603.html

In order to effectively use carbon nanotube arrays in a variety of applications such as flat panel displays or heat sinks it is necessary to vertically align the nanotubes on a substrate. Porous aluminum templates are the most common approach I have seen but this patent teaches a porous silicon template as an alternative. Claim 1 reads:

1. A device comprising: a horizontally oriented substrate having: a silicon layer containing at least one nano-sized diameter silicon pore, a patterned conductive layer, wherein at least one carbon nanotube is fabricated within the silicon pore, wherein the at least one carbon nanotube is electrically coupled to the patterned conductive layer; and wherein substantially all of the carbon nanotubes are vertically oriented.

The priority of for this patent is relatively early (Feb. 7, 2000) however this paper from A. Huczko also discloses porous silicon templates at around the same time or earlier (see Fig. 12 and cited reference [59] which was published in 1999).