US Patent 7473943 - Nanowire FET with overlapping contacts

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7473943.html

Nanosys has developed many designs of field effect transistors (FETs) using multiple semiconductor nanowires to form the channels. This patent focuses on an individual core/shell nanowire structure for FET construction including an asymmetrical double gate arrangement for improved performance. Claim 1 reads:

1. An electronic device, comprising:

at least one nanowire having a core;

a gate contact positioned along at least a portion of a length of said at least one nanowire;

a dielectric material layer between said gate contact and said at least one nanowire, wherein said dielectric material is a shell layer formed around said core of said at least one nanowire;

a source contact in contact with an exposed portion of said core of said at least one nanowire;

a drain contact in contact with an exposed portion of said core of said at least one nanowire; and

wherein at least a portion of at least one of said source contact and said drain contact overlaps with said portion of said length of said at least one nanowire along which the gate contact is positioned.