Methods for forming electronic devices from nanomaterials

Abstract

A multi-scale manufacturing system comprising a centrally located multi-axis and multi-dimensional first manipulating component associated with a housing for manipulating a substrate and a template, a control subsystem coupled to the first manipulating component for controlling movement thereof, a pre-alignment subsystem for pre-aligning the substrate and the template, an assembly station for applying nanomaterial to the template, an alignment station for aligning the template and the substrate together to form a workpiece assembly, and a transfer subsystem for applying pressure to the workpiece assembly for transferring the nanomaterial from the template to the substrate.

Description

RELATED APPLICATION[0001]The present application is a Divisional patent application based on U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15 / 269,752, filed Sep. 19, 2016, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62 / 220,113, filed Sep. 17, 2015, entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR FORMING ELECTRONIC DEVICES FROM NANOMATERIALS, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]The fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology generally concern the synthesis, fabrication and use of nanoelements and nanostructures at atomic, molecular and supramolecular levels. The nanosize of these elements and structures offers significant potential for research and applications across the scientific disciplines, including materials science, physics, chemistry, computer science, engineering and biology. Biological processes and methods, for example, are expected to be developed based entirely on nanoelements and their assembly into nanostructures. Oth...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention is a system and method for fabricating nanostructures from nanomaterial using a multi-axis and multi-dimensional manipulating component. The system includes a housing, a manipulating component, a pre-alignment subsystem, an alignment subsystem, an assembly subsystem, and a transfer subsystem. The method involves pre-aligning the substrate, applying nanomaterial to a template, and aligning the template with the substrate to form a workpiece assembly. The system and method provide a more efficient and precise way to fabricate nanostructures.

Problems solved by technology

Although carbon nanotubes have been assembled into different nanostructures, only limited nanotools and fabrication methods for their assembly have been developed.

One obstacle has been the manipulation of individual nanoelements, which is often inefficient and tedious.

This problem is particularly challenging when assembling complex nanostructures that require selecting and ordering millions of nanoelements across a large area.

Although these methods are useful for fabricating simple nanodevices, neither is practical when selecting and patterning, for example, millions of nanoelements for more complex structures.

These methods, however, remain incapable of manipulating individual nanoelements.

The development of nanomachines or “nanoassemblers” which are programmed and used to order nanoelements for their assembly holds promise, although there have been few practical advancements with these machines to date.

Self-assembled monolayers, however, have been problematic when used to transfer nanoelements from one nanosubstrate to a recipient substrate.

Although particle interactions can be modified to affect their transport, optical and electrical properties, controlling nanoelement orientation is also a challenge in self-assembly methods.

Similarly, nanoscience has been incapable of manipulating particle interactions to reproducibly assemble hundreds of nanodevices.

Further, conventional manufacturing techniques have failed to integrate nanoscale processes and nanomaterials into products.

However, these processes are quite slow, are not readily scalable, do not provide sufficient high rate throughput and typically only provide micron scale resolution.

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