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Gentag, Inc. (Williamsburg, VA) earned U.S. Patent 7,518,504 for a means to detect external chemical, radiological or biological threats using modified personal wireless devices combined with new advanced micro and nanosensor technologies. The embedded sensors can provide a cost effective method for wide area surveillance of a potential terrorist or personal health threats.

Personal electronic devices such as mobile phones, PDAs or watches, in combination with new microsensor technologies can be used as a new type of platform detection technology for wide area surveillance of major threats. A "Homeland Security" chip combines the elements of geo-location, remote wireless communication and sensing into a single chip. The personal electronic devices can be further equipped for detecting various medically related threats. Similarly modified personal devices can be used to detect external threats that are person-specific.

According to inventor John Peeters, a personal wireless device such as a mobile phone can cost effectively include a built-in slot to allow the insertion of an integrated sensor module for the detection of a terrorist threat or an external hazard that can threaten a person’s health or wellbeing. The technology allows multiple types of sensors to be used in the same device interchangeably. Each sensor module may be a cartridge containing a multitude of very small sensors at the micron, sub micron or nano range. The types of sensors used within the sensor module include radiation sensors, chemical sensors, biological sensors or a combination thereof. A key feature is that these sensor modules are of exactly the same size, are fully interchangeable, are self-contained and contain all the necessary electronic components and control codes for a "plug and play" type technology.

The entire surveillance system is designed to be completely flexible and modular and to make full use of existing or emerging electronic technologies for unique identification, sensing, two-way communication and geolocation. A particular emphasis of the technology is on cost effectiveness so that wide area surveillance can become possible. Because of the broad and ubiquitous use and distribution of mobile phones or watches, the technology will maximize the chances of an encounter between the bearer of a modified personal device and a potential threat. In fact repeated encounters can be expected, thereby providing a means to eliminate or reduce false-positives. Wide area surveillance is defined here as the ability to detect a threat anywhere over a wide geographical area such as a large city, a county, a State or even an entire country.

The elements of geo-location, remote wireless communication and sensing are combined into a single "Homeland Security" chip that can be added onto any personal or electronic device and function autonomously from the device, thereby providing a convenient means to rapidly provide global threat detection capabilities within a given country.

Since the attacks of Sep. 11, 2001 in the United States, this issue has become critical for countries that are concerned with broad and indiscriminate large-scale terrorist threats. Of particular concern is the threat of "dirty bombs" that could contaminate broad geographical areas and have very serious negative economic consequences for an entire country. Equally the threat of a biological attack with agents such as anthrax has become a serious national and international concern. Personal threat is defined here as any chemical, biological or radiological hazard that can threaten the health or the life of an individual. The technology is completely modular and flexible thereby allowing individual people, corporations, States and even entire countries to tailor the technology to their own respective needs and security concerns.

The sensors could also be hidden in any truck, shipping container or bus an automatically communicate if a threat is detected. RFID cell phone-sensor networks, a component of the Gentag technologies, combine disposable wireless sensors with unique IDs, modified cell phones, PDAs, or wireless laptops and proprietary software, creating broad new wireless sensor-monitoring opportunities for industrial, home, medical, military, and consumer markets worldwide.

The following figure depicts mobile phones detecting a terrorist threat contained in a moving truck and automatically alerting the authorities.

Figure: How Wide Area Terrorist Detection with Cellphones Would Work

Computer 220 and/or E911 operators then convey the information to the relevant emergency systems as indicated in 224 via link 216 which may be the Internet, dedicated phone or T1 lines, wireless links, optical fiber, satellite links or a combination thereof. Typically emergency information would be relayed to local police or to rapid response teams or to the Federal emergency systems that are either in place or being put in place as a response to the Homeland Security initiative in the US.

In order for the technology to be widely adopted by the public, it is important to allow each individual user to self-decide if he or she wants to participate in the global surveillance effort and have the option either to turn automatic notification on, set the phone to manual, or not use the sensor capabilities at all, according to Gentag’s patent. The technology has already begun to revolutionize consumer diagnostics and help reduce the global costs of healthcare, which in the US alone will reach $2.5 trillion in 2009.

Person-Specific Hazard Detector Technology

In another embodiment, the disposable “nose” or detection technology used in combination with a personal electronic device includes logic, storage and microprocessing capabilities allows the building libraries of sensor values that are person-specific. For example if a person has a specific chemical allergy or multiple chemical allergies or suffers from asthma, the technology can be used to "train" the disposable nose to recognize only certain chemical components that represent a hazard to a specific person.

Rather than pre-calibrating the “nose” what would happen would be the following. Each time a person suffers from an adverse reaction to external chemicals or has an asthma attack he or she would activate a user interface, such as pressing a special button on the modified personal device, to relay a signal to the microprocessor and the memory of the electronic device. The electrical values of each of the sensor elements of the nose at that given time would then be stored in memory and over time a person-specific library of values would be recorded into the device. Once these values are recorded they can compared, merged and then be used as person-specific references to warn the person that he or she is entering an environment that contains chemicals that are likely to cause an adverse health reaction.

Modified Nanocarbon Electrode Improves Water Desalinization

By modifying the hydrophobic surface properties of carbon aerogel to make it wettable, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST, Seoul, KR) researchers made an “ideal” material for water desalinization and purification using a process known as capacitive deionization, referred to as CDI. Carbon aerogel has been known as an ideal material for a CDI electrode because it has been known that in a CDI process, a carbon aerogel electrode can remove heavy metals, colloids and the like, as well as ions.

Researchers Byung Won Cho, Won Il Cho, Dong Jin Suh, Chun Mo Yang, and Woon Hyuk Choi added silica gel to a carbon active material resulting in a very stable electrode with high charging and discharging efficiency, and that shows excellent cycle characteristics without electric charge reduction or electrode deterioration as the cycle goes on, even though only a small amount of a carbon active material is used. It was also found to be suitable as an electrode for a secondary battery or capacitor as well as for preparing ultra pure water or purifying salty water, according to U.S. Patent 7,505,250. The carbon-porous media composite has superior wetting ability to an aqueous electrolyte and superior mechanical strength compared with the conventional carbon electrode made only of a carbon electrode active material

HEALTH

Smart Nano-Shells Do a Body Good

Inventors Daniel Cohn and Lando Gilad (The Casali Institute of Applied Chemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Givat Ram Campus Israel, 91904, Jerusalem, Israel) developed essentially hollow nano-shells made of a biodegradable amphiphilic polymer that can either remove harmful elements from the body or release beneficial products. The nano-structures reversibly respond to temperature changes and are capable of sequestering components in their substantially hollow core as well as transporting, or scavenging hydrophobic or hydrophilic materials. The nano-shells may be also used for scavenging a medically or pharmaceutically undesired component, or for lowering the concentration of an undesired component, or for mitigating a harmful effect of an undesired component. A nano-shell may also be used in releasing a pharmaceutically or medically important substance in vivo, which releasing may be associated with decreasing the volume of said nano-shell in response to a temperature increase, according to U. S. Patent Application 20090074819

Engineering nano-sized structures such as liposomes, dendrimers, and polymeric micelles, is a growing area of contemporary biomaterials science, due to their large potential in a diversity of biomedical applications, including biosensors and drug delivery.

"Smart" polymers are an advanced class of materials tailored to display substantial property changes as a response to minor chemical, physical or biological stimuli, such as temperature, pH, biochemical agents, mechanical stresses, and electrical fields. Environmentally responsive polymers have attracted special attention over the last decade due to both their complexity and versatility, as well as to their application in various areas. The term "thermo-responsive" refers to the ability of a polymeric system to achieve significant chemical, mechanical or physical changes due to small temperature differentials. Reverse thermo-responsive polymers exhibit a sharp viscosity increase with temperature within a narrow temperature interval, reversibly producing a gel from a low viscosity water solution.

Probe Targets & Destroys Cancer Cells

In U.S. Patent 7,505,811, Dune Medical Devices Ltd. (Caesaria, IL) inventor Dan Hashimshony details a method using nanoparticles and a probe apparatus for examining tissue for the presence of predefined target cells. The probe is particularly useful for detecting cancerous cells in a real-time manner during a surgical operation for removing, tumors such as a breast tumor. The technique uses non-radioactive conjugated antibodies in an electric optical measuring procedure for detecting cancerous cells. The target cells, e.g., cancerous cells, once detected, may be subjected to optical energy of sufficient intensity to destroy them. For example, where the target cells are cancerous cells and the optical energy is laser energy, the same probe as used for detecting the cancerous cells may also be used for destroying the cancerous cells by applying femtosecond laser pulses at intensity sufficient to destroy the targeted cells. Longer pulses can be also used but with more heat dissipation to the surrounding area.

Hand Held Electrophoresis Made Possible

There is a tremendous emphasis on research to provide micro-fluidic integrated gene analysis systems with sample preparation and analysis processes on a single micro-fabricated substrate. Such systems demonstrate an overall reduction in size, reduced use of reagents, increased speed and accuracy of analysis, and increased portability for field use. The field applications of such devices, however, are limited by power requirements imposed by the highly resistive capillary columns. The typically applied DC voltages to gel filled micro-fabricated capillaries in order to execute electrophoresis run in several kilovolts (1-3 KV) which can be only achieved in a laboratory setup. For example, DNA separation generally requires electric field strength of 300-800 V/cm and an applied voltage of the order of 1-3 KV in electrophoresis applications. Therefore, there is a need for developing a novel class of matrices with increased conductivity, which enhances sample (i.e., a DNA charged on the matrix) mobility while retaining resolution. A University of Missouri research team has developed such a device, according to U.S. Patent Application 20090014333

Shantanu Bhattacharya, Nripen Chanda, Shubhra Gangopadhyay, Paul Sharp and Keshab Gangopadhyay developed compositions and methods for electrophoresis separation matrices using nano-particle separation matrices with increased conductivity at low voltage. The gel composition is conductive in nature and transfers a charge. The novel separation matrix enables electrophoresis at a relatively low voltage. Specifically, the composition includes a separation matrix and nano-particles that have a higher conductive capacity compared to the separation matrix alone. The conductive matrix composite is comprised of agarose, a buffer, and a nano-particle hydrosol. A suitable nano-particle material may be formed from any conductive material that may include any metal or polymer. Suitable noble metals include copper, ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, silver, rhenium, osmium, iridium, platinum, gold, and mercury.

Technologies to enable miniaturized DNA electrophoresis within fused silica capillaries (50-75 microns inside diameter) have been under development over the last two decades. The large surface area to volume ratio in micron-sized capillaries leads to an effective loss of the resistive Joule heat, allowing the voltage limitations that are imposed in slab gel electrophoresis to be surpassed. Also implicated is the need to use higher electric fields to achieve higher DNA separation speeds in micro-channel systems. The development of DNA separation matrices for capillary electrophoresis systems remains an important endeavor, as the properties of the sieving polymers directly dictate the separation resolution and the migration behavior of DNA molecules, as well as the difficulty or ease of micro-channel loading of the matrix. Some of the commonly used matrices include agarose, polyacrylamide, hydroxyalkylcellulose [6], polyvinyl alcohol and its copolymers.

NANOFABRICATION

Weaving- Smart Fabrics by-Lithography (WBL)

The University of Illinois received U.S. Patent 7,501,069 for the world's smallest chain-mail fabric. Combined with existing processing techniques, the flexible, metallic fabric holds promise for fully engineered smart textiles.

Northwestern University Professor Chang Liu and Nannan Chen of the University of Illinois made functionalized free-standing structures and functional devices that are flexible, including nano- and micromachined flexible fabrics made of woven networks and mesh networks. Their invention provides processing methods for manufacturing functional flexible free-standing structures with a wide range of integrated materials, devices and device components

Micrograph of released metallic fabric that is expanded to the maximum area. (Credit: Photo courtesy Chang Liu)

Over the last decade considerable research has been directed at developing flexible integrated electronic systems capable of supporting a new class of flexible electronic devices. Interest in the field of flexible electronics arises out of a number of advantages promised by this technology over conventional single crystalline silicon based electronic devices. For example, the capability to conform to bent and flexed orientations without fracturing allows flexible electronic devices to be configured in a wide range of useful device geometries, such as bent orientations characterized by a high radius of curvature, not possible with brittle conventional single crystalline silicon based electronic devices. In addition, flexible electronic devices are expected to be more robust with respect to mechanical deformation and shearing relative to comparable conventional single crystalline silicon devices. Moreover, fabrication pathways available for flexible electronic devices using solution processable component materials, polymer-based substrates and/or low temperature, non-clean room processing conditions may enable a high speed, low cost fabrication platform for patterning these devices on large substrate areas.

. The manufacturing methods are capable of providing large area functional electronic, optoelectronic, fluidic, and electromechanical devices and device arrays which exhibit good device performance in stretched, bent and/or deformed configurations. The work was supported by Air Force Office of Scientific Research Grant No. F49620-01-1-0496.

The flexible free standing structures comprising micromachined and/or nanomachined fabrics are capable of efficient integration with a range of devices and device components, including integrated sensors, actuators, electronic and optoelectronic circuits and fluid components, and capable of fabrication and functionalization using a range of materials with different properties, including inorganic and organic semiconductors, dielectrics, polymers, ceramics, metals and other conductors. Processing methods include techniques of weaving on semiconductor wafers and other substrates, such as glasses, polymer sheets, paper, and cloth in sizes from square micrometers to 10 square meters. The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (Urbana, IL) is assigned the patent and the United States Government has certain rights in the invention.

To realize the interwoven structure of the two-axis bendable flexible skin, Liu and Chen developed a multiple layer surface micromachining process called weaving-by-lithography (WBL). The WBL surface micromachining process involves the deposition of multiple structural and sacrificial layers. Two layers of structural material are patterned in a crisscrossed fashion to realize the interwoven threads that form a continuous fabric. The horizontal and vertical threads are not connected. Rather, they are free to slide and rotate against each other, just like the threads in real piece of cloth fabric. Aluminum and photoresist are used as the sacrificial materials. Gold is used as the metal conductor. The patterned gold conduction leads run on two different levels and are connected at the connection pads. Each individual thread can be made conductive from one end to the other by hopping through multiple connection pads.

Ripples in the Fermi Sea Excite Lower Nanolithography Cost

Research funded by the U.S. Navy has yielded a photolithographic mask exhibiting enhanced light transmission due to the plasmonic excitation of the incident light in sub-wavelength apertures formed in an array formed in the mask to collect and re-radiate optical energy suitable for imaging nano patterns in ultra-high resolution photolithographic printing. The technology results in a “substantial reduction in writing time" to produce a photolithographic mask and in a “significant increase in the mask fabrication throughput,” according to U.S. Patent Application 20090068570. The inexpensive ultra-high resolution sub-wavelength lithographic system can be used in fabricating semiconductor integrated circuits, data storage, as well as in microscopy, opto-electronics, bio-photonics, and other applications.

A photolithographic mask with arrays of sub-wavelength apertures formed in the opaque electrically conducting surface coating of the mask effectively couple the illuminating light with the mask surface in such a way as to excite surface plasmons of wavelengths smaller than that of the incident light. The mask makes it possible to obtain dimensions of the projected image (features on the photoresist or wafer) smaller than the wavelength of the illuminating light. Semiconductor features may be printed using focused ion beam (FIB) nanolithography to create features on wafers in the range of 45 nm-500 nm.

It is believed that light incident on a metal thin film establishes oscillations in the mobile charge density (ripples in the "Fermi sea"). These ripples or plasmon excitations in the metal foil give rise to an evanescent mode of re-radiation that has been used in the past for contact printing. In addition, the ripples also excite the cavity modes of circular apertures in the thin film. The cavity modes act as intense light sources propagating into the far-field, drawing energy from their surroundings on which light is incident. The net transmission is far greater than the aperture area would dictate if taken alone.

The plasmonic excitation in the layer perforated with the sub-wavelength apertures arrays under the light incident on the mask produces high resolution far-field radiation patterns of sufficient intensity to expose a photoresist on a wafer. The fill-factor of the mask, i.e., the ratio of the total apertures area to the total mask area, may lead to a significant increase in mask manufacturing throughput by FIB or electron beam "writing". The mask demonstrates defect resiliency and the ability to imprint coherent clear features of nano dimensions and shapes on the wafers for integrated circuits design.

The system features mechanisms for optimizing apertures size, spacing, array shape, etc., for attaining the optimized printing conditions for creating a particular integrated circuit on the wafer. These mask parameters are optimized for each particular feature (circuit design) to be imprinted on the wafer in correlation with the illumination dose and wavelength of the incident light, as well as in correspondence with the material of the mask photo-plate, according to inventors University of Maryland Prof. Martin C. Peckerar (Silver Spring, MD), Mario Dagenais , Birendra Dutt , John D Barry, Michael D. Messina, Jr., and Yves Ngu. The development of the nanophotolithography mask was funded by the U.S. Naval and Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) under Grant Number N004210310002. The U.S. Government has certain rights in this invention.

Nano-lithography Techniques for LED Fabrication

Professor Ming-Nung Lin (Dept. of Physics, National Taiwan University, Pingtung City, TW) developed a method for fabricating a quantum dot active layer of light emitting diodes (LED) by nano-lithography and then fabricating out a new active layer of LED of nano quantum dot structure in a more miniature manner than that of the current fabricating facilities that results in high quality LED which feature longer light wavelengths, brighter luminance and lower forward bias voltage. Lin’s invention can use current fabrication facilities without any alteration or redesign. U.S. Patent Application 20090087935 details five basic steps for fabricating quantum dot active layer of LED by nano-lithography. It also details how make nano-ring structures by nano scale lithography by using a fabricating method that takes advantage of current fabricating facilities in such a way that the number and density of the nano-ring structure in unit area or unit volume can be significantly increased in a more even manner. Rings are one of the more difficult structured to manufacture on the nanoscale

Coated Photonic Crystals Solve PIC Degradation Problems

University of Texas Professor Weidong Zhou (Austin, TX) developed a process in which photonic crystals can be easily, reliably and cheaply mass produced with protection against degradation resulting from exposure to further manufacturing processes. Photonic crystals are used in integrated circuits, optical interconnects and sensors. Photonic crystals hold great promise for new and innovative micro- and nano-photonic and other light-emitting devices and are currently the subject of extensive research worldwide. Photonic crystals have the capability of revolutionizing the photonic industry, doing for light what silicon did for electrons. Complete photonic integrated circuits (PICs), including lasers, modulators, lossless bends and waveguides, etc., may be built monolithically on the same wafer by patterning the desired photonic crystal structure, just as integrated circuits and lasers are now fabricated. Such mass production and high yield fabrication of PICs will have a “profound impact,” according to Zhou in U.S. Patent 7,505,653.

One of the difficulties in the manufacturing and processing of photonic crystal structures is how to generate cost-effective photonic crystal structures with submicron features. While e-beam lithography is widely used, additional patterning methods that are as fast or faster and low cost, repeatable and reliable are required for generating high quality submicron sized photonic crystal structures.

There is a need to manufacture photonic crystal structures apart from follow-on microfabrication processes used to create metal contacts, etc. This is because air column lattice photonic crystals are mechanically and chemically susceptible to disruption, damage and/or degradation as a result of the exposed air columns on their top surface. Current practice is to complete all other fabrication processes before submicron feature patterning and photonic crystal structure formation. This approach, however, limits performance because it compromises the high quality submicron feature definition of the photonic crystal structure. In addition, the approach is not suitable for large area feature definition (e.g., PICs).

Zhou’s manufacturing method provides high quality photonic crystal structures, that no longer require other fabrication processes, and thus are no longer subject to deterioration, damage or degradation from the other fabrication processes. Without deterioration, damage or degradation to photonic crystal structures, the overall performance of such structures is improved; and the devices in which they are used will exhibit significant improvements in performance. Photonic crystal structures manufactured with coatings are also more mechanically robust by being prepared from a process which is simple, reliable, easy to perform, easy to replicate and is highly cost-effective. Zhou’s invention will lower the cost of manufacturing of such structures and the devices they are useful for.

Zhou’s crystal protection is maintained in the devices in which they reside, including sensors (e.g., nano-photonic biosensor, chemical sensor, gas sensor), ultra-compact high density multilayer optical interconnect systems, in which optical interconnects provide high speed paths between backplanes (board to board), inter-chips and intra-chip as well as high performance, low power consumption and ultra-small photonic devices, such as microlasers, modulators, waveguides, lossless bends, receivers, etc.

A coating or layer contacts a top portion of the photonic crystal structure’s air columns. The layer provides protection to the fabricated air columns from any subsequent fabrication processes and enables the fabrication of photonic crystal structures as PICs, while still maintaining the integrity and high quality of the underlying photonic crystal structures. Methods of providing a coating to a photonic crystal structure include growth, wafer fusion, angled sputtering, spin coating, dip-into solutions, as some examples. The coating is a material selected from the group consisting of polymer, polymer blend, silicon-dioxide, nanoparticle, gallium arsenide, indium phosphide, semiconductor material, noble metal, alkali metal, earth metal, Group III metal, Group VI metal, transition metal, and combinations of those materials.

Nanoparticles Increase Lithography Resolution

Pixelligent Technologies LLC (College Park, MD) solid immersion lithography techniques can achieve a higher refractive index than is possible with liquid immersion lithography and as a result produce smaller integrated circuits and sensors, according to U. S. Patent 7,524,616. Inventors Zhiyun Chen, Erin F. Fleet, and Gregory Cooper developed semiconductor nano-sized particles or semiconductor nano-sized particle containing materials as a highly refractive medium in immersion lithography, as anti-reflection coating in optics, as pellicle in lithography and as sensitizer in UV photoresists are described. The nanoparticle lens can be used with current 245 nm, 193 nm and 157 nm lithography systems

Nano-sized particles offer much higher refractive indices. Therefore, nano-sized particles, or mixtures of nano-sized particles with certain liquid, polymer, gel or solid material can improve the resolution in both liquid and solid immersion lithography. Semiconductor nano-sized particles possess unique optical properties, which make them ideal candidates for various applications in UV photolithography.

Figure #2 from U.S. Patent 7,524,616

It is shown in the Rayleigh equation that the resolution of a lithography system is proportionally dependant on the refractive index of the relevant medium. There are several examples of achieving high resolution by immersion in high refractive index liquid materials. However, the fact that all liquids used in the liquid immersion lithography have refractive index smaller than 1.5 limits the final achievable resolution.

In projection lithography, a layer containing nano-sized particles is inserted between the photomask and the immediate next lens. This layer can be coated onto either the photomask or the lens itself. For 365 nm lithography, this layer may comprise ZnO or GaN nano-sized particles. For 193 nm lithography, it may comprise Mg_xZn₁^-xO or AlN or BN nano-sized particles. The highly refractive layer has more efficiency in collecting the light transmitted through the photomask. Numerical aperture, as defined by NA=n sin .theta., describes the light-gathering power of a lens. By inserting a high refractive layer between the mask and the first lens, the numerical aperture is increased by a factor of n, comparing to air. In air, NA cannot be larger than 1, while with this coating NA can easily exceed 1. For example if TiO₂ nano-sized particles are used, even with a NA=0.5 in air, the final NA is 1.3.

Nano-Optoelectronics and Semiconductors

Nanosys Nano-Amplifiers Provide 15 X More Bandwidth

Nanosy's, Inc.’s (Palo Alto, CA) nanocomposite optical amplifiers (NOAs) on integrated optical chips provide cost-effective broadband amplification across the entire clear-window of optical fiber. The NOAs “could provide a 15 times increase in bandwidth over existing technology, while remaining compatible with all future advances in bit-rate and channel spacing,” according to inventor Stephen Empedocles in U.S. Patent 7,515,333.

Similar to today's semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), the "nanocomposite optical amplifiers" (NOAs) embody a broad-functioned technology with applications throughout the telecom industry. Unlike SOAs, however, NOAs can be fabricated and processed like a plastic. As a result, it is expected that these electrically addressable NOAs will have broad applications in, low-cost lasers, detectors, amplifiers, wavelength converters, switches and variable attenuators that function over a broad spectral range in the near-infrared, and that can be easily integrated into complex active optical circuits using low cost methods such as inkjet or screen printing.

These innovations should lead to an era of widely available highly integrated, low cost communications and networking. This platform technology of inexpensive, widely tunable, integrated optical circuits should enable pervasive, distributed networking, from robust, low-cost large area networks down to micro (personal, household) networks. This technology will provide ubiquitous, flexible and cost-effective broadband access, revolutionizing the telecom industry and ushering in universal connectivity.

Nanosys’ nanocomposites answer three fundamental technical challenges that have prevented semiconductor nanocrystals from providing the basis for inexpensive, highly-integrated optical circuits and high-efficiency photonics. In particular, the major technical barriers to the development of near-infrared (near-IR) NOAs include (1) Auger scattering--an intrinsic, extremely rapid non-radiative relaxation pathway that quenches laser emission in nanocrystals; (2) poor charge mobility in organic materials that prevents conduction of electricity at current densities high enough to sustain electrically pumped optical gain; and (3) specific semiconductor materials with an inherently symmetric crystal structure, preventing the use of available shape-control methods necessary for optimum performance.

The telecommunications industry has a defined set of performance and cost requirements, and an exponentially increasing demand for bandwidth. Even in today's market downturn, telecom network traffic still doubles approximately every year. Applications such as video on demand, telemedicine, interactive games and teleconferencing will increase the demands on the network infrastructure dramatically, outpacing the traditional technology. As an example, industry estimates suggest that there are about 100 million video rental transactions per week in the USA. Downloading this volume of information from the Internet would require a capacity of 40 terabits per second. In 2001, the Internet was believed to have a total capacity of about 15 terabits per second. Thus, the migration of just this single industry onto the internet would completely overload the existing infrastructure.

Given the global migration of industry to internet based business, there is an increasing and near critical need to address the mounting problem of bandwidth need. Even with the current "fiber glut", many US market links are nearing capacity. As such, there is an unavoidable need to continue increasing available bandwidth within each fiber to meet capacity needs. This is especially true as we begin to move fiber into the home, eliminating local networks as the bandwidth-bottleneck in the telecommunications system. Traditionally, fiber bandwidth has been extended by either increasing channel bit-rates or tightening channel spacing. Both of these methods have problems, however, that will ultimately limit the maximum available bandwidth.

In principle, the one "limitless" source of bandwidth is achieved by expanding the wavelength range over which data can be transmitted. There are, of course, current practical limits to the available wavelength range defined by the transmission and dispersion of today's optical fibers; however, even these can efficiently transmit from 1200 nm to 1700 nm. To date, however, the available wavelength range for telecommunications has been limited to a narrow spectral band around 1550 nm due to the narrow gain spectrum of erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) (efficient gain from 1535 nm to 1570 nm). Expanding beyond this range requires the introduction of new cost-effective amplification platforms that have so far eluded the industry.

Nanosys’ nano-amplifier technology will allow for low-cost, highly integrated active optical circuits using high-volume manufacturing techniques such as inkjet printing or screen printing. The ability to precisely engineer the properties of NOAs will allow deployment of integrated systems that initially mimic the functionality of traditional devices, providing seamless integration into today's network infrastructure and nearly limitless expandability in the future when it is truly needed (i.e., in 5 10 years). The nanoscale materials used include nanodots, nanorods and branched nanostructures for optoelectronic applications. Such materials have broad based applications in telecommunications, energy devices, analytical instrumentation, and electronics.

Monolithic Transmitter Photonic Integrated Circuit

Infinera Corporation (Sunnyvale, CA) earned U.S. Patent 7,477,807 for monolithic transmitter photonic integrated circuit (TxPIC) semiconductor chips for use in Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) optical networks which are deployed for transporting data in long haul networks, metropolitan area networks, and other optical communication applications.

The TxPIC chip in its simplest form comprises a semiconductor laser array, an electro-optic modulator array, an optical combiner and an output waveguide. The output waveguide may include a spot size converter (SSC) for providing a chip output that is better matched to the numerical aperture of the optical coupling medium, which is typically an optical fiber. In addition, a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) array may be included in various points on the chip, for example, between the modulator array and the optical combiner; or between the laser array and the modulator array. In addition, a photodiode (PD) array may be included before the laser array; or between the laser array and the modulator array; or between an SOA array, following the laser array, and the modulator array, or between the modulator array and the optical combiner; or between an SOA array, following the modulator array, and the optical combiner. Also, an SOA may be provided in the output waveguide, preferably a laser amplifier, for example, a GC-SOA. The modulated sources, combiner and output waveguide are all integrated on the same chip.

The chip was developed by inventors David F. Welch, Vincent G. Dominic, Fred A Kish, Jr., Mark J Missey, Radhakrishnan L Nagarajan, Atul Mathur, Frank H. Peters, Robert B Taylor, Matthew L Mitchell, Alan C. Nilsson, Stephen G Grubb, Richard P. Schneider, Charles H. Joyner, Jonas Webjorn, and Drew D Perkins.

Nantero EEPROMS Use CNT for Memory Storage

In U. S. Patent 7,528,437, Nantero, Inc. (Woburn, MA) inventors Claude L Bertin, Thomas Rueckes and Brent M Segal describe the use carbon nanotubes (CNT) to form electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM) cells including cell selection circuitry and a storage cell for storing the informational state of the cell. The storage cell is an electro-mechanical data retention cell in which the physical positional state of a storage cell element represents the informational state of the cell. The storage cell element is a carbon nanotube switching element. The storage is writable with supply voltages used by the cell selection circuitry. The storage is writable and readable via the selection circuitry with write times and read times being within an order of magnitude. The write times and read times are substantially the same. The storage has no charge storage or no charge trapping and can be used to manufacture nonvolatile random-access memory (NVRAM).

ENERGY

Graphene Nanoplatelets Double Lithium Battery Power

Wright State University Dean of College of Engineering and Computer Science Bor Z. Jang (Centerville, OH) and Aruna Zhamu of Nanotek Instruments (Centerville, OH) created a nano-scaled graphene platelet-based composite material for use as an anode active material in a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that more than doubles the power per gram of material used compared lithium batteries now on the market. The active material can be in the form of fine particles or thin coating film. The anode material in the provides a reversible specific capacity of typically greater than 600 mAh/g, often greater than 800 mAh/g (milliamp hours per gram), and, in many cases, much greater than 1,000 mAh/g (all based on per gram of composite material), which all far exceed the theoretical specific capacity of 372 mAh/g for graphite anode material. They also exhibit superior multiple-cycle behaviors with a small capacity fade and a long cycle life. This invention is based on the research result of a US Federal Government Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project. The US government has certain rights to this invention. U.S. Patent Application 20090117467 details how nano-scaled graphene platelet-based composite material can be manufactured cost effectively.

Dirty Wind Gusts Gigawatts of Power

“Dirty wind” can be transformed into clean power. The dirty wind is the wind that cars and trucks create whizzing down the highway. Gene S. Fein and Edward Merritt of Genedics LLC (Lenox, MA) have a vision to turn freeways into gigawatt scale power plants by lining them with both solar power panels and five foot helix shaped wind turbines, which are also coated with thin film solar collectors. Using a highway or other roadway allows for the installation of over 500 wind generating devices per mile. Freeway guardrails would also be transformed into solar power collectors along with the stripes on the road. Fein and Merritt also envision turning cars into dynamos by installing “sheets” embedded with a million micro-electromechanical-windmills on the car’s roof, side panels and undercarriage to transform the air passing over the vehicle into electricity that can be used by the vehicle or stored in the mat and harvested at a central depot. Vehicle-based wind energy generating devices can generate energy while a vehicle is parked or moving. Their ideas were good enough to earn U.S. Patent 7,501,713, in which they layout a roadway system that can provide the basis for a national or global clean or renewable energy infrastructure.

Genedics LLC Roadway Energy System

The power generated and collected by an expressway power system would be delivered to the power grid to power homes or businesses. The system would also provide power to service stations and the power could be used to split water into hydrogen by electrolysis for use in a fuel cell to generate power when the sun isn’t shining and the wind, dirty or atmospheric, is not blowing or as fuel in a fuel cell vehicle.

The use of public and private highways via median and outside of breakdown lane installations of small wind generating devices offers numerous advantages. First, private highways and municipalities have existing maintenance crew as well as existing relationships with contracted infrastructure building providers who can be trained to install the wind generation systems along specified parts of roadways. Second, the wind power generation systems can be small and noiseless, small enough to fit on a median between opposite sides of a divided highway with existing median. These infrastructures benefit the wind power generator companies; the roadway owners via lease or easement revenue, and provide a stable and consistent infrastructure project generating a service provider economy for clean energy production as well as the environment.

These wind energy generating devices attached to vehicles include nano- or micrometer scale wires that gather wind energy and generate electricity, thus, substituting the function of the turbines and generators. It is believed, that each wire mechanically deforms, for example, bends in response to wind, thereby converting some of the wind energy into electrical energy via a piezoelectric effect.

Genedics LLC Nano Windmill Sheets

Wind energy generating sheets (called "wind turbine installation sheets" or "wind turbine installation placards") are wind energy generating devices that employ up to millions of nano- and/or micrometer scale wind energy generating devices on a sheet with a density of, typically, about 1500 to about a million wind energy generating devices per square meter of sheet. Sheets may be rigid or flexible and also provide the housing and infrastructure for wiring of the wind energy generating devices and for connective wiring to other wind energy generating sheets, to an inverter or battery system.

Nano- and/or micrometer scale wind energy generating devices on wind energy generating sheets can be manufactured directly on a given sheet and/or the wind energy generating devices can be, independently, manufactured and then attached to a given sheet. Wiring that may be used to electrically interconnect the wind energy generating devices and/or the wind energy generating devices with electric circuitry on a given sheet includes, for example, nano- and micrometer scale wiring as known in the art, for example, gold, silicon, copper and silver nano- and micrometer scale wires.

Large fleets of motor vehicles driving along available public and private roadways may each be affixed with wind power gathering devices and the energy derived from these devices may be used to power elements of the vehicle directly, or may be used to gain credits for fuel, goods, or sold for currency. Rest areas and service stations along with all retail outlets can make these vehicle wind generating systems available for easy purchase and installation for the motor vehicle owner. Power depots where energy is deposited from fixed and vehicle deployments, installation areas and billing systems can be combined to service both fixed and vehicle deployment installations to gain efficiency and save on infrastructure cost.

New advances in solar energy gathering techniques allow for this kind of power gathering line system to be deployed in a more flexible, multi-form and cost efficient manner for power generation resulting in the development of a solar energy distributed power network with multi-gigawatt potential which may power entities directly or via interconnection with existing grid power systems. This roadway solar "line array" deployed in the median, on the side or breakdown lane or as lane dividers creates a system that produces DC current that is then passed through inverter, which converts to AC current and voltage. Power is also fed to the system by a network of vehicles deployed and installed with portable or permanent solar power gathering devices seamlessly mounted to their vehicles and containing linked battery packs that can be stored either in the trunk, inside the vehicle or attached to the exterior of the vehicle.

Small noiseless to low noise wind turbines are configured to use large stretches of continuous available public and private roadways via easements, leases or the purchase specified rights to create thousands of miles of contiguous and semi-contiguous networks of interconnected wind turbine power generation. The wind turbines may be mounted in the median, breakdown lanes or just off of the highway or major roadway. This deployment may run with a complimentary set of installations that uses small noiseless to low noise wind turbines to generate wind power by affixing those wind power generating devices to motor vehicles.

The power generated by the solar and/or wind energy gathering systems can be used to both connect to a grid or to power homes businesses or systems without connecting to existing grid systems. Power generated and stored in the portable battery system can be transferred into the network power system at Power Depots which can be designed and installed at the same or different points of interconnection and direct distribution as the line array panel outputs. Power is logged by the electricity meters and is either consumed immediately by home or business loads, or is sent out to the general utility grid network. The utility meter spins backwards, or two meters are used to record incoming and outgoing power. The inverter shuts down automatically in case of utility power failure for safety, and reconnects automatically when utility power resumes. Solar power arrays or/and fixed wind turbines can be situated on a median, breakdown lane or nearby running contiguous with major roadways and offer numerous conveniences such as easy access to the grid, easy maintenance access and direct powering opportunities to homes and businesses with a potential installation footprint of hundreds of thousands of miles of available roadways.

Wind energy generating devices of very small geometrical dimensions and wind energy generating sheets employing wind energy generating devices of nanometer and micrometer scale, may be manufactured using microfabrication methods. Microfabrication methods for three-dimensional structure creation are well known in the art and include, for example, photolithography such as two-photon 3D lithography, etching such as RIE (Reactive-ion etching) or DRIE (Deep reactive-ion etching), thin film deposition, such as sputtering, CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition), evaporation, epitaxy, thermal oxidation, doping using, for example, thermal diffusion or ion implantation, wafer-scale integration techniques, wafer bonding, CMP (Chemical-Mechanical Planarization), wafer cleaning, nano- and micrometer scale wiring fabrication, and the like.

Materials suitable for microfabrication methods include, for example, silicon (e.g., single crystal silicon), silicon carbide and silicon/silicon carbide hybrid structures. Materials for nano- and micrometer scale wiring fabrication include, for example, gold, silicon, copper, silver and zinc oxide. Parts of wind energy generating devices with dimensions of about 1/8th of an inch and up can be manufactured using molding technology. All of the wind energy generating devices, but, in particular, the ones of dimensions of about 1/8th of an inch and up may replicate the well known designs of larger, that is, 5 feet to several hundred feet wind energy generating devices, for example, helical wind turbines.