US Patent 7863798 - Nanocrystal powered nanomotor

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7863798.html

Attempts to shrink micromechanical motors to the nanoscale are usually confronted with the problems of stiction and reliability. A few approaches have used biomaterials such as DNA and carbon nanotubes to construct actuators which avoid these problems. This patent from Berkeley Lab claims one variation using multiwall carbon nanotubes and a reservoir of indium atoms to construct a linear actuator. Claim 1 reads: 

1. A nanoscale motor, comprising:

an atom reservoir operable to provide atoms;

a nanoparticle ram coupled to the atom reservoir and operable to receive the atoms from the atom reservoir;

a substrate coupling the atom reservoir to the nanoparticle ram;

a nanolever coupled to the nanoparticle ram, the nanolever operable to move in response to the nanoparticle ram receiving the atoms from the atom reservoir; and

a voltage source electrically coupled to the substrate and operable to deliver reversible positive and negative voltages to electrical connections of the motor, the reversible positive and negative voltages operable to cause reciprocal movement of the nanolever.

US Patent 7857956 - Nanotube controlled dielectrophoresis

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7857956.html

Dielectrophoresis is a method commonly used in microfluidics which uses AC electric fields to manipulate biomaterials. This patent from the Regents of the University of California takes this to the nanoscale by using carbon nanotubes as the electrodes generating the AC fields. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method of dielectrophoretically manipulating a polarizable object with elongated nanoelectrodes, comprising:

positioning a polarizable object in proximity with a first and a second elongated nanoelectrode, wherein said first elongated nanoelectrode is cylindrically shaped and comprises at least one nanotube; and

applying a time-varying electric field between the first and second nanoelectrodes, the field being sufficient to manipulate the polarizable object.

US Patent 7850798 - Flash welding of conducting polymer nanofibers

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7850798.html

Due to their high surface area nanostructured materials often have heightened sensitivity to radiation and light. This patent from the Regents of the University of California takes advantage of this property by exposing the nanofibers to a light flash which melts individual nanowires and integrates the nanowires into a continuous film. Claim 1 reads:

1. A process for welding together nanofibers consisting of one or more thermosetting conjugated electrically conductive polymers, the nanofibers collected as a random mat, comprising

exposing the random mat of said nanofibers of said one or more thermosetting polymers to a burst of a high intensity flash of light.

US Patent 7834264 - Heterostructure nanowire thermoelectrics

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7834264.html

This patent from the Regents of the University of California has an early priority date (3/30/2001) and includes some basic claims to nanomaterials used in thermoelectric energy production. Claim 1 reads:

1. A thermoelectric device, comprising:

a matrix disposed on a substrate;

the matrix comprising one or more inorganic nanowires embedded within a dielectric material;

wherein the one or more nanowires comprise coaxial heterostructure nanowires.

US Patent 7785415 - Nanostructure growth via localized heating

http://ip.com/patent/US7785415

The manufacture of nanostructures such as silicon nanowires or carbon nanotubes often require a high temperature furnace which makes it difficult to integrate nanostructures with microelectronics. This patent from the Regents of the University of California teaches a clever alternative of using localized heating provided by resistive microstructures so that the fabrication chamber may be maintained in room temperature during nanostructure growth. Claim 1 reads:
1. An apparatus for generating synthesis of a nanostructure in a room temperature environment, comprising:

a resistive microstructure;

wherein the microstructure is configured to allow current to pass through the microstructure to generate a localized heating at a location on the microstructure; and

wherein said localized heating results in growth of one or more nanostructures.

US Patent 7735147 - Tapered CNT scanning probe tip

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7735147.html

A variety of designs have been developed in the past several years for carbon nanotube tipped atomic force microscopes which can provide higher resolution scanning in the nanoscale. This patent teaches a variation in which a conical carbon shape is grown to form a more stable tip. Claim 1 reads:

1. A mechanically stable carbon nanotube, having a scanning probe tip comprising an oriented carbon nanotube having a carbon-island-defined base with a gradually decreasing diameter, with a sharp point at the probe tip.

US Patent 7723684 - SWCNT infrared detector

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7723684.html

Although this is not the first patent for a CNT infrared detector (see US 6400088) it teaches a variation capable of counting individual photons having energies of around 1 eV. Claim 1 reads:

1. An infrared (IR) detector, comprising:

a sensor element comprising a thin film of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) suspended between electrical contacts.

US Patent 7696684 - Semiconductor nanocrystal display

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7696684.html

This patent from the Regents of the University of California has early priority (June 1998) and includes basic claims to quantum dots used in multi-color displays. Claim 1 reads:

1. A multicolor display apparatus, comprising:

a pixel array of semiconductor nanocrystals comprising a plurality of pixels of different colors, wherein the sizes of the nanocrystals in each of the plurality of pixels determine the colors; and

a pixel addressing system comprising a light source operatively associated with the pixel array for selectively optically exciting the nanocrystals with light from the light source to produce a luminescent color pattern of pixels.

US Patent 7695811 - Reversible adhesive using nanostructures

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7695811.html

This patent from the Regents of the University of California proposes a magnetically actuated reversible adhesive using polymer nanorods. Claim 1 reads:

1. An adhesive, comprising:

a compliant surface having one or more nano-structures thereon,

wherein the compliant surface is moved by applying a magnetic field either to engage the nano-structures with an adhering surface or to remove the nano-structures from the adhering surface.

US Patent 7682970 - Laser ablation nanopatterning

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7682970.html

This patent from the University of California teaches a maskless fabrication method for organic field effect transistors having <100nm resolution by using laser ablation. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method of forming a nanostructure comprising:

depositing a suspension containing nanoparticles onto a substrate forming thereby a pattern;

ablating said pattern to produce an ablated pattern; and

sintering said ablated pattern to produce said nanostructure.

US Patent 7682659 - Suspended carbon MEMS

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7682659.html

MEMS devices are most often formed with silicon materials but for some applications carbon is more desirable to establish biocompatiblity. This patent from the University of California teaches a method for forming carbon MEMS of different shapes. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method for forming suspended carbon structures comprising the steps of

exposing a negative photoresist to UV light;

patterning lines with electron beam lithography to the top surface of the photoresist between UV exposed areas;

pyrolyzing the patterned negative photoresist in a two step pyrolysis process in a first inert gas atmosphere; and

forming carbon posts with carbon structures suspended therebetween.

US Patent 7674389 - Low energy e-beam shaping of nanodevice

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7674389.html

This patent assigned to the University of California teaches a technique using a focused electron to shape nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes for applications such as atomic force microscopy. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method of shape modifying a nanodevice, comprising:

a) providing a nanodevice;

b) providing an assist gas;

c) contacting the nanodevice with a low energy focused electron beam in a presence of the assist gas; and

d) applying a force to at least a part of the nanodevice during application of the low-energy focused electron beam, whereby the nanodevice is transformed into a shape-modified nanodevice.

US Patent 7655479 - Q-dot biomarker for cancer detection

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7655479.html

This patent is from H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and teaches the use of photo-enhanced nanocrystals to assist in the early detection of ovarian or lung cancer. Claim 1 reads:

1. A luminescent, bio-conjugate for use in the detection of cancerous and precancerous biomarkers in a sample, comprising:

a luminescent semi-conductor nanoparticle;

wherein the nanoparticle is photo-enhanced with electromagnetic energy at between 325 nm and 488 nm, thereby generating electron-hole carrier pairs; and

at least one antibody associated with at least one cancer to be detected.

US Patent 7628959 - Nanowire hydrogen gas sensor

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7628959.html

This patent from the University of California has some early priority (2001) and includes some basic claims to using metallic nanowire arrays as a hydrogen sensor. Claim 1 reads:

1. A hydrogen gas sensor comprising:

a first circuit exhibiting an increase in conductivity when exposed to hydrogen gas,

wherein the first circuit comprises an array of nanowires,

wherein a plurality of nanowires in the array are electrically discontinuous in the absence of hydrogen gas,

first and second electrical contacts coupled to the first circuit,

a power source coupled to the first and second electrical contacts, and

a second circuit coupled to the first circuit for sensing current across the first circuit.

US Patent 7569847 - Uniform diameter core-shell nanowire heterostructures

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7569847.html

This patent from the University of California system has priority going back to 2001 and teaches the fabrication of uniform arrays of nanowires. However, one bizarre thing about some of the claims (such as claim 1 below) is that they claim a single nanowire making the limitation regarding the diameter uniformity of a population of nanowires seemingly meaningless. One earlier article published in 1999 describing core/shell semiconductor nanowires is "CdS/CdSe core/sheath nanostructures obtained from CdS nanowires," Chem. Commun., 1999, 1969 - 1970, DOI: 10.1039/a905669f.

1. A nanowire, comprising: a core of a first material at least partially surrounded by a sheath of a compositionally different non-amorphous material;

wherein said nanowire is configured to be selected from a population of nanowires, said population of nanowires having a substantially uniform inter-wire diameter of less than 50% RMS.

US Patent 7545051 - Vertical nanowire array solar cells

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7545051.html

This patent from the University of California teaches growing high density arrays of metal oxide nanowires to form a high efficiency photovoltaic converter. Claim 1 reads:

1. An electronic device, comprising:

a first conductive layer;

an array of nanowires, the nanowires having first ends and second ends, the first ends adjacent the first conductive layer, the nanowires extending approximately perpendicular to the first conductive layer, wherein the nanowire array has a density of approximately 10^10 nanowires per cm2;

a second conductive layer approximately parallel to the first conductive layer and adjacent the second ends of the nanowires; and

an electronic material filling spaces between and around the nanowires.

US Patent 7535070 - Nanoscale spin wave computer architecture

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7535070.html

This patent from the University of California system teaches spintronic based computing based on the crossbar switch architecture providing a degree of parallel computer processing which may be superior to conventional computation systems. Claim 1 reads:

1. A solid-state spin-wave computing device comprised of a plurality of inputs and a plurality of outputs, wherein said device is configured to simultaneously transmit data elements from each of said plurality of inputs to each of said plurality of outputs by using spin-waves of same or differing frequencies and wherein said solid-state spin-wave device is a nano-scale reconfigurable mesh.

US Patent 7481267 - Anisotropic thermal CNT/ceramic film

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7481267.html

This patent from the University of California System teaches an improved anisotropic thermal interface achieved by carbon nanotube ceramic composites. Claim 1 reads:

1. In an application requiring the conduction of heat between an exothermic device and a heat sink surface, the improvement comprising:

interposing between said exothermic device and said heat sink surface a heat-spreading layer of a composite comprised of carbon nanotubes dispersed in a matrix of ceramic material, said composite having been uniaxially compressed in a direction transverse to said heat sink surface to provide said composite with a thermal diffusivity in said transverse direction that is lower than the thermal diffusivity in directions parallel to said heat sink surface.

The basic research behind this patent is described in the article "Anisotropic thermal properties of single-wall-carbon- nanotube-reinforced nanoceramics" by Zhan et al.

US Patent 7476982 - Electrically conductive nanofiber adhesive

US Patent 7,476,982

This patent from the Regents of the University of California teaches a potential replacement for solder based IC connection in the form of nanofibers that could help eliminate problems of thermal mismatch during packaging which result in integrated circuit malfunction. Claim 1 reads:

1. An integrated circuit chip comprising:

a chip surface;

one or more contact pads disposed on the chip surface; and

one or more electrically conductive nano-fibers formed on the one or more contact pads, the one or more electrically conductive nano-fibers configured to provide an adhesive force by intermolecular forces and establish an electrical connection with one or more contact pads disposed on the surface of a chip package.

US Patent 7470954 - Nanowell array for nanoparticles

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7470954.html

This patent from the Regents of the University of California teaches an array of cells in which magnetic nanoparticles are deposited to achieve a media for high density data storage. Claim 1 reads:

1. A fabricated device comprising:

a photoresist coated-substrate formed with wells through its surface, said wells having gradually sloping walls and an aspect ratio of less than 0.37, and micelles enclosing nanoparticles disposed in said wells.