US Patent 7927651 - MSG sensor formed from nanowires

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7927651.html

This patent is based on research conducted in South Korea indicating that silicon or carbon nanowires can be used to improve the sensitivity of biosensors for detecting the food additive MSG. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method for manufacturing a biosensor for detecting glutamate, comprising the steps of:

integrating nano wires on a surface of a solid substrate;

coating electrodes with a polymer after forming the electrodes at both ends of each of the nano wires;

adhering a functional group on the surface of the solid substrate between the nano wires;

adhering glutaraldehyde to the functional group on the surface of the solid substrate; and

immobilizing glutamate oxidase, which is capable of being bound to monosodium glutamate and catalyze the oxidative reaction of glutamate, to glutaraldehyde.

US Patent 7579050 - Charged nanoparticle assisted lithography

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7579050.html

Fabrication on the nanoscale is often divided between bottom-up and top-down strategies. However, there are some hybrid approaches which form an optimized medium between the nanoscale resolution available from the bottom-up approach and the fabrication speed available from the top-down approach. This patent represents one such hybrid approach based on a self-assembly of charged nanoparticles which enhance the resolution of a mask pattern, Claim 1 reads:

1. A method for patterning a nano-sized structure, which comprises the steps of:

(i) mounting a plate having a nano-scale pattern formed thereon by a patterned photoresist layer on an electrode placed in an externally grounded reactor and applying a voltage to the electrode, the nano-scale pattern being an exposed region of the plate uncovered by the photoresist layer;

(ii) accumulating charges selectively onto the photoresist layer on the plate mounted on the electrode by using an ionized gas; and

(iii) introducing charged nanoparticle aerosol having the same polarity as that of the charges accumulated on the photoresist layer into the reactor and toward the plate to cause the charged nanoparticles to adhere to the nano-scale pattern in a focused form to shape a narrower pattern than the original nano-scale pattern.