US Patent 7821079 - Inkjet printing and patterning of nanotube transistors

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7821079.html

Over the past two decades Rice University has been central in the development of techniques to fabricate single walled carbon nanotubes. This latest patent from Rice teaches an inkjet printing process of nanotubes including patterning of semiconducting and conducting regions. Claim 1 reads:

1. A process for making thin film (TF) electronic devices comprising the steps of:

using an ink jet printer mechanism to print electronic device patterns on a substrate as a composite ink mixture of metallic carbon nanotubes (m-NTs) and semiconductor carbon nanotubes (s-NTs), wherein the m-NTs are active and dominate the characteristics of the composite ink mixture in any of the electronic device patterns designated as a conductor patterns;

de-activating a portion of the m-NTs in any of the electronic device patterns designated as resistive device patterns; and

de-activating substantially all of the m-NTs in any of the electronic patterns designated as semiconducting device patterns.