US Patent 8093144 - Nanoassembly using charge patterns

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8093144.html

This patent from MIT has priority going back to 2002 and teaches a type of nanoscale bottom up assembly based on the use of charge patterns to attract molecular structures. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method for forming a feature, the method comprising:

creating a net charge pattern on a substrate by means of at least one energy beam, the charge pattern having a first type of charge; and

introducing a plurality of at least one of molecular-size scale and nanoscale building blocks to a region proximate the charge pattern, the building blocks having a second type of charge and directly imaging the charge pattern to form the feature, the building blocks being introduced by dusting, such that the building blocks adhere only to the charge pattern.