Mashed Articles

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7416699.html

This patent from Stanford University has an early priority date (Aug. 14, 1998) and includes some very basic claims to carbon nanotubes formed from catalyst islands used as electrical interconnects. Claim 1 reads:

1. A nanotube device comprising:

first and second conducting elements and at least one nanotube adapted to pass current between the first and second conducting elements, wherein a first end of said at least one nanotube is in electrical contact with the first conducting element and a second end of said at least one nanotube is in electrical contact with the second conducting element, and wherein at least one end of the at least one nanotube is rooted in a catalyst island.

A similar patent (with even broader claims) to nanotube interconnects was also issued to Canon as US Patent 7,148,619. The US priority of the Canon patent is Oct. 26, 1998 but the foreign priority is Oct. 30, 1997.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7416019.html

This patent from Johns Hopkins University teaches a high density multiwall carbon nanotube array forming a high efficiency thermal interface useful for integrated circuit cooling. Claim 1 reads:

1. A thermal interface comprising:

a first structure for making thermal contact with a second, different structure; and

a plurality of substantively aligned carbon nanotubes protruding substantively perpendicularly from a first surface of the first structure to improve thermal contact with the second structure, wherein a nanotube packing ratio is the quotient of the sum of cross section areas of carbon nanotubes in the plurality of carbon nanotubes divided by the area of the first surface of the first structure covered by the carbon nanotubes, and the nanotube packing ratio is greater than fifty percent.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7412428.html

This patent is one in a series of patents from Alex Nugent who has come up with a variety of techniques to use nanoparticle based interconnections to simulate physical neural networks. One of the limitations of current artificial intelligence approaches is the reliance on software solutions which have an intrinsic delay required for the transfer of information between memory and a processor. On the other hand physical neural networks have the potential to integrate memory with processing. This latest patent teaches a system for applying a Hebbian learning process to a physical neutral network formed from nanoparticles, nanowires, or nanotubes.

1. A system, comprising:

a physical neural network configured utilizing nanotechnology and integrated with feedback circuitry, wherein said physical neural network comprises a plurality of nanoconductors comprising at least one of nanotubes, nanowires, or nanoparticles, suspended and free to move about in a dielectric medium and which form neural connections between pre-synaptic and post-synaptic components of said physical neural network; and

a learning mechanism for applying Hebbian learning to said physical neural network.