Mashed Articles

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.

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.

Molecular memory breakthrough using nanowires

Jan. 25, 2007 — A team of UCLA and California Institute of Technology chemists reported in the Jan. 25 issue of the journal Nature the successful demonstration of a large-scale, “ultra-dense” memory device that stores information using reconfigurable molecular switches. This research represents an important step toward the creation of molecular computers that are much smaller and could be more powerful than today’s silicon-based computers.

The 160-kilobit memory device uses interlocked molecules manufactured in the UCLA laboratory of J. Fraser Stoddart, director of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), who holds UCLA’s Fred Kavli Chair in Nanosystems Sciences.

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