Monday, November 29, 2010

US Patent 7838933 - Printing of aligned nanowire transistors

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7838933.html

This patent teaches applying techniques of fluidic nanowire alignment to form high mobility transistors. Claim 1 reads:

1. A structure for forming a transistor comprising:

a dielectric substrate, the dielectric substrate having a first surface that includes a fluid accumulation region between an area for a source electrode and an area for a drain electrode, the fluid accumulation region being pre-patterned via changing surface energies or topologies; and,

a droplet of fluid in the fluid accumulation region, the droplet including semiconductor nanowires suspended in a carrier fluid, the droplet elongated due to the pre-patterned fluid accumulation region such that upon evaporation of the carrier fluid, the nanowires are aligned to form the active region of the transistor between a source electrode and a drain electrode as the droplet reduces in size.