US Patent 7829886 - Vertical MWCNT memory

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7829886.html

Over the past 10 years the company Nantero has developed several memory cell designs based on micromechanical nanotube structures arranged in crossbars. This patent from Samsung represents a competing micromechanical design based on vertical multiwall carbon nanotubes having movable inner nanotube shells. Claim 1 reads:

1. A nonvolatile memory device comprising:

a substrate;

at least one first electrode on the substrate;

first and second vertical walls on the at least one first electrode spaced apart from each other;

a multiwall carbon nanotube on the at least one first electrode between the first and second vertical walls;

second and third electrodes on the first and second vertical walls, respectively; and

at least one fourth electrode spaced a variable distance D (where D≧0) from the multiwall carbon nanotubes.