Mashed Articles

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7413973.html

In order to create nanoscale sensors or electronics it is often necessary to create electrode gaps having nanometer scale dimensions. A variety of techniques exist to form such nanoscale gaps including electron beam lithography and the precise application of mechanical stress to an electrode to create a gap in the electrode. However, these techniques are not amenable to mass production and are difficult to control. This patent from the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute of South Korea teaches a method of forming lateral spaced apart electrodes using a spacer which may provide a more convenient road to large scale applications. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method for manufacturing a nano-gap electrode device, comprising the steps of:

forming a first electrode on a substrate;

forming a spacer on a sidewall of the first electrode;

forming a second electrode on an exposed substrate at a side of the spacer; and

forming a nano-gap between the first electrode and the second electrode by removing the spacer, wherein, after the second electrode is formed, a portion of the spacer on the sidewall of the first electrode remains exposed.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7410564.html

Nanopores are analytic devices used for single molecule sorting and DNA sequencing. This patent from Agilent Technologies teaches applying a ramping voltage to electrodes adjacent the nanopore to enhance the speed and efficiency of DNA sequencing. Claim 1 reads:

1. An apparatus for detecting a biopolymer in a nanopore, comprising:

(a) a first electrode;

(b) a second electrode adjacent to said first electrode;

(c) a nanopore adjacent to said first electrode and said second electrode and positioned to allow said biopolymer to be positioned between said first electrode and said second electrode; and

(d) potential means for electrically connecting said first electrode and said second electrode for applying a ramping voltage over an energy spectrum of the biopolymer from said first electrode, through a portion of said biopolymer in said nanopore, to said second electrode to produce a signal indicative of said portion of said biopolymer; wherein ramp-time of the applied voltage is short compared to a nucleotide translocation time through the nanopore.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7411241.html

This patent from Samsung with priority going back to March 28, 2005 presents some basic claims to vertically oriented carbon nanotubes channels connected to a bit line. Claim 1 reads:

1. An integrated circuit device, comprising:

a substrate;

an electrically conductive bit line on said substrate; and

a field effect transistor having a first current carrying terminal electrically connected to said bit line, said field effect transistor comprising a nanotube channel region and a gate electrode surrounding the nanotube channel region.

However, some examples of pertinent prior art seem to have been overlooked such as US Patent 6,515,325 which teaches forming a carbon nanotube transistor with an annular gate as part of a memory cell (see column 7, lines 5-17) or US Patent 6,740,910 which teaches a vertical nanotube channel formed in a through hole of a gate structure.