US Patent 7612270 - CNT CMOS inverter

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7612270.html

CMOS is currently the dominant architecture in digital and analog microelectronics due to low power dissipation and ease of use in logic design and fabrication. This patent from IBM attempts to extend the CMOS concept to carbon nanotube electronics forming a basic inverter CMOS circuit. Claim 1 reads:

1. A digital inverter comprising:

a first carbon nanotube (CNT) extending from a substrate, and functioning as a first source (S1) for the digital inverter;

a second carbon nanotube (CNT) extending from the substrate, and functioning as a second source (S2) for the digital inverter;

a third carbon nanotube (CNT) extending from the substrate, and functioning as an input (G) of the digital inverter; and

a conductive structure disposed on the third CNT, and functioning as an output (D) of the digital inverter when either the first CNT or the second CNT are in contact with the conductive structure disposed on the third CNT.