US Patent 7566478 - Patterned carbon nanotube fabric

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7566478.html

The two main ways of integrating carbon nanotubes with electronics is 1) to prefabricate the carbon nanotubes which are introduced into a paste of ink and deposited on a substrate used to form the electronic device or 2) to directly grow carbon nanotubes onto the substrate. This patent from Nantero focuses on the second method to pattern carbon nanotube fabric into an electrical interconnect. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method of making an article, comprising:

applying carbon nanotube growth catalyst on to a surface of a substrate;

subjecting the substrate to a chemical vapor deposition of a carbon-containing gas to grow a non-woven fabric of carbon nanotubes, wherein the nanotubes of the fabric are substantially parallel to said surface of the substrate;

selectively removing portions of the non-woven fabric according to a defined pattern; and

providing first and second electrodes in contact with respective first and second portions of the patterned non-woven fabric to create the article, wherein the patterned non-woven fabric forms a conductive trace between the first and second electrodes.