US Patent 7884525 - Nanotube compliant MEMS

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7884525.html

Nanoscale mechanical grippers have long been proposed in science fiction as a way to enable the molecular nanotechnology envisioned by Eric Drexler. This patent teaches a way to use nanotubes to construct the compliant portions of such gripping devices. Claim 1 reads:

1. A nano-scale compliant mechanism comprising:

a grounded component;

a mechanical coupler disposed to move relative to the grounded component; and

a plurality of nanotubes having first and second ends, the first ends of the nanotubes being coupled to the grounded component and the second ends of the nanotubes being coupled to the coupler, the nanotubes being compliant relative to the grounded component and the coupler;

wherein the coupler is disposed for substantially linear motion relative to the grounded component.