California Inventors Develop Nanomaterial Production Method

ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 18 -- Linda T. Romano and James M. Hamilton, both of Sunnyvale, Calif., have developed a electronic nanowire production method.

According to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present invention is directed to methods to produce, process, and exploit nanomaterials, and particularly elongated nanowire materials. The invention provides a method for producing nanowires that includes providing a thin film of a catalyst material with varying thickness on a substrate, heating the substrate and thin film, such that the thin film disassociates at the relatively thinner regions and vapor depositing a semiconductor onto the substrate to produce nanowires."

An abstract of the invention, released by the Patent Office, said: "A method is also provided in which two or more thin films of different materials are overlayed over a substrate, selectively etching the first underlying thin film to create a plurality of islands of the second thin film that mask portions of the first thin film and expose other portions and growing nanowires on the first thin film. Additional methods for producing nanowires are provided."

The inventors were issued U.S. Patent No. 7,344,961 on March 18.

The patent has been assigned to Nanosys Inc., Palo Alto, Calif.

The original application was filed on April 29, 2005, and is available at: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7,344,961.PN.&OS=PN/7,344,961&RS=PN/7,344,961.

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