Intellectual Property Law

US Patent 7439081 - Multilayer CNT integrated circuit

This patent from IBM teaches manufacturing methods for incorporating multilayer carbon nanotube films into an integrated circuit in which the nanotubes in one layer are oriented orthogonally to that of another layer to control the direction of maximum conductivity between layers. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method of making an integrated circuit chip, comprising the steps of:

providing a relatively broad, flat chip substrate having a planar orientation;

forming a plurality of active devices on said substrate;

forming at least one dielectric layer over said substrate and said active devices, said dielectric layer containing a plurality of electrically conductive vias for making electrical connections to said active devices;

forming a conductive layer over said at least one dielectric layer, said conductive layer being substantially parallel to said planar orientation of said chip substrate, said step of forming a conductive layer comprising:

(a) forming a first sublayer of carbon nanotubes oriented in a first direction substantially parallel to said planar orientation of said chip substrate; and

(b) forming a second sublayer of carbon nanotubes oriented in a second direction substantially parallel to said planar orientation of said chip substrate, said first direction and said second direction forming a non-zero angle.

Some earlier work in using carbon nanotubes into integrated circuitry is described here and in patents issued to Nantero.

Full post as published by TinytechIP on October 26, 2008 (boomark / email).