Mashed Articles

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7419887.html

This patent teaches a new type of nanofabrication process involving the focusing of a laser beam width to nanometer dimensions and using the laser to fuse nanoparticles deposited via a nanosize pore. Claim 1 reads:

1. The process of forming a nano structure on a substrate, comprising:

suspending nano particles in a suspension fluid;

applying a pressure to the suspension fluid for forcing the nano particles through a nano size pore onto the substrate;

directing a micrometer size laser beam through a concentrator for forming a nanometer size laser beam; and

directing the nano size laser beam onto the deposited nano particles on the substrate.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7420106.html

This patent from the University of Utah includes some broad claims covering he characterization of a dielectric surface via tunneling. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method of characterizing a dielectric surface by detecting tunneling events, the method comprising acts of:

applying a first voltage at a given location on the dielectric surface, the voltage being of a sufficient strength, and applied within a distance from the dielectric surface where tunneling events are likely to occur; and

detecting a tunneling event occurring as a result of applying the first voltage at the given location on the dielectric surface.

However, several examples of prior art seem to have been overlooked such as US Patent 4,575,822 teaching a voltage biased scanning tunneling tip (20) used for data detection via characterization of a dielectric layer (14).

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7420156.html

This patent from the University of Pittsburgh teaches the formation of a bandpass filter formed of nanowires useful to applications in spectrometry and analyte detection. Claim 1 reads:

1. A band pass filter comprising a metal nanowire array, wherein:

the array comprises a plurality of nanowires separated by slit shaped radiation transparent regions;

the nanowires comprise metal islands located over a radiation transparent substrate; and

the metal islands have a thickness of between 100 nm and 250 nm.