US Patent 7365395 - Dielectric composites including core/shell nanowires

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7365395.html

This patent from Nanosys teaches the creation of artificial high-k dielectrics formed from nanowire composites. Advantageously by controlling the density and the distribution of the nanowires the dielectric constant of the composite may be tuned to various values depending on the application. Claim 1 reads:

1. An artificial dielectric device, comprising:

a first conducting element and a second conducting element spaced apart from and opposing said first conducting element;

a dielectric disposed between said first and second conducting elements and comprising a material selected from the group comprising a plastic, a metal oxide, a glass, a semiconductor, diamond, sapphire or quartz; and

a plurality of nanostructures embedded in said dielectric material, said nanostructures comprising a plurality of nanowires each comprising a semiconductor core and an insulating shell comprising an oxide, carbide or nitride coating disposed about said core, wherein said nanowires are oriented substantially parallel to each other with their long axes substantially perpendicular to the first and second conducting elements such that said nanowires have anisotropic orientations within said dielectric, wherein at least subset of said nanowires do not make direct contact to either said first or second conducting element.