Intellectual Property Law

US Patent 7564085 - Vertical nanowire mechanical memory

This patent from Samsung teaches a new type of nanostructured memory device which uses a mechanically movable nanowire to store charge on a capacitive nanowire. Claim 1 reads:

1. A memory device comprising:

an insulating substrate;

a source electrode formed on the insulating substrate;

a drain electrode formed on the insulating substrate and spaced apart from the source electrode;

a nanowire capacitor formed on the source electrode, the nanowire capacitor including a first nanowire grown vertically from the source electrode, a dielectric layer formed on the outer surface of the first nanowire, and a floating electrode formed on the outer surface of the dielectric layer;

a second nanowire grown vertically from the drain electrode, the second nanowire bending towards the nanowire capacitor while a voltage is applied to the drain electrode; and

a gate electrode formed on the insulating substrate and spaced apart from the drain electrode, the drain electrode being arranged between the source electrode and the gate electrode.

Full post as published by TinytechIP on July 23, 2009 (boomark / email).