All things ten^(-nine)
NanoDel is a German company involved in the development of nanoparticles for drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier. Researchers from NanoDel have contributed to the scientific investigation of nanoparticles for drug delivery for over a decade and have just recently received a fairly basic patent to the use of polyalkylcyanoacrylate nanoparticles for administering DNA.
Last week researchers at Hewlett-Packard indicated that their nanoscale crossbar arrays may see commercialization as early as next year in ultra high density non-volatile memory. While the initial research into nanoscale crossbar technology was performed by Stan Williams and Phil Kuekes in the late 1990’s, the recent discovery of the “memristor“ characterized as a fourth fundamental circuit component and having both the properties of a resistor and a memory storage element has apparently propelled crossbar technology to the fast track. While presently looking toward non-volatile memory as the main application there have been hints of applications in other areas such as programmable logic and neural networks which may contribute to a merge between software and hardware (i.e. morphware) which underlies present trends in reconfigurable programming and artificial intelligence. One thing HP may need to watch out for is competitors such as Samsung which already has a dominating position in the non-volatile memory market as well as a patent application claiming a competing version of HP’s memristor.�
So far 2008 has set a 30 year record for a minimum number of venture backed IPO’s (5 in the first quarter and none in the second quarter). Meanwhile a consortium of large technology companies including Verizon, Google, Cisco, HP, and Ericsson have banded together to create Allied Security Trust (AST) which joins the likes of Intellectual Ventures and Ocean Tomo to create a market for patents (although with clearly different goals in mind). But how will these developments effect nanotechnology ventures? Read the rest of this entry »
Due to the groundbreaking work of Richard Smalley in the fabrication of fullerenes and carbon nanotubes, Rice University has obtained some pretty broad patent protection for carbon nanotubes over the past few years. The majority of the basic carbon nanotube patents from Rice have so far focused on single walled carbon nanotubes, which are the most pristine form of carbon nanotubes and occur in two basic types - conductive and semiconductive - making them attractive for future electronics applications. However, in the nearer term many applications of carbon nanotubes are appearing that use the multi-walled variety of carbon nanotubes rather than the single walled variety. While multi-walled CNTs are not available as semiconductors in many cases they can be easier to fabricate and less fragile than single-walled CNTs and more suitable for applications wherein electrical or thermal conduction is most important such as field emission displays, thermal cooling, and flexible electrodes.
Recently, some patents have issued based on continuation patent applications that have broadened Rice’s basic patents beyond single walled CNTs to cover “fullerene nanotubes”. For example
US Patent 7,390,477 (priority March 7, 1997) -
Claim 1 - A composition of matter comprising at least about 99% by weight of fullerene nanotubes.
US Patent 7,390,767 (priority March 7, 1997) -
Claim 1 - A method for producing a catalyst support comprising: (a) providing a plurality of fullerene nanotubes; (b) contacting an end of at least some of the fullerene nanotubes of the plurality with at least one catalytic metal; and (c) activating the catalytic metal.
While originating from Rice University it is likely that these patents fall under the control of Unidym due to their merger with Carbon Nanotechnologies.
The US Display Consortium recently announced the addition of a business investment summit to their annual conference on flexible electronics and displays. So far much of the interest and activity in nanotechnology has been weighted toward the study of basic nanomaterial properties rather than new applications and even when applications are proposed for nanomaterials these applications usually focus on an improvement of a property of an existing technology (e.g. higher mechanical strength, better electrical conductivity, etc.) rather than the enablement of a new technology. In contrast, flexible electronics is one area in which nanomaterials may actually be essential for enablement. This recent article by Stefan Preisler and Gerd Lange describes how semiconducting polymers, carbon nanotubes, and silicon nanowires may play a significant role as the “inks” for traditional printing tools such as inkjet printing and roll-to-roll coating used in enabling such flexible electronics.
�
The semiconductor and electronics industry has a serious problem when it comes to patent thickets in which a multitude of different corporations or other patent holding entities each have overlapping patents related to different components of a particular product making commercialization difficult. Nanotechnology patents share and may even amplify this problem due to the cross-disciplinary nature of certain nanomaterials and the relatively large fraction of university held nanotechnology patents for which cross-licensing strategies may be moot since universities do not usually generate products and thus are not subject to infringement of a corporations patents.
One particularly interesting example of overlapping patents relevant to future nanoelectronics is the case of US Patent 6,740,910 held by Infineon Technologies and US Patent 6,566,704 held by Samsung Electronics. Both these patents deal with basic vertical channel FET designs in which nanowire of nanotube material form the channel portions. According to the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors nanowires and/or nanotubes are likely to start appearing in transistor designs by 2012 and the vertical channel design may potentially be the last hurrah for MOSFET transistors which currently dominates electronics. Infineon’s patent (filed Jan. 28 2003 in the U.S. and covering both carbon nanotube and nanowire channels) appears to have the broader patent claims to this design but Samsung’s patent (limited to carbon nanotubes) has the earlier U.S. filing date (June 27, 2001). During the U.S. examination Samsung’s patent was initially used against Infineon’s patent application but Infineon was able to claim earlier foreign priority to July 28, 2000. Lacking an interference proceeding it is unclear as to whether Infineon or Samsung has ultimate priority but, if the incorporation of nanowires and nanotubes into transistor structures becomes a necessity to maintain Moore’s law, it is likely that one or both of Infineon and Samsung will be in a fairly powerful position in the next decade.�
In Volume 3, Issue 4 of the Nanotechnology Law & Business Journal the carbon nanotube patent landscape was analyzed. The links below provide some updated statistics based on recent U.S. patent data. Some highlights:
- Manufacturing processes involving carbon nanotube fabrication or integration of carbon nanotubes in devices have attracted the largest amount of patent activity in the U.S. with patents related to field emission properties of nanotubes at the #2 spot, basic CNT materials at #3, electronics applications at #4, and sensor applications at #5.
- In 2007 Hon Hai Precision obtained the top spot for obtaining carbon nanotube patents followed by Samsung, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Intel, and IBM.
The annual NSTI Nanotech Conference and Trade Show was held this week in Boston, Ma. Some of the highlights include:
A keynote speech by Congressman Jay Inslee, author of Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean Energy Economy. Congressman Inslee made the comparison between the challenge of the moon landing confronting U.S. science and technology in the 1960’s to the current challenges of renewable/clean energy.
During a Nanotech IP and funding session Brent Segal, COO of Nantero, discussed strategies for developing patent portfolios and noted the importance of developing application patents around core nanomaterials patents and of having inventors contribute to the writing of their patent specifications (as opposed leaving the interpretation of a technical disclosure solely in the hands of the inventor’s patent attorney). In related Nantero news a deal with SVTC was announced to advance commercialization of their NRAM memory. During this same session the importance of continuations in nanotechnology patenting, filing in China, and the mixed benefits of provisional patent applications were discussed (the consensus was that they should only be used as a last resort).
Chad Mirkin discussed recent technical advances made in dip pen nanolithography by Nanoink including the extension of 2D tip arrays to densities in the range of millions of tips per cm2 by forming the tips within an integrated elastomeric stamp similar to nanoimprint lithography but which used the meniscus transport properties characteristic of Nanoink’s previous probe tip arrays. Additional developments mentioned include multiple chemistry tip arrays and the development of “eraser” tips functionalized to correct improperly patterned areas. While current applications are focused on mask and flat panel display repair, the potential for application in bioarrays, sensors, nanoscale encryption, and molecular electronics were discussed.
Jerry Hallmark of Motorola discussed the impact of nanomaterials in future cell phone and portable electronic designs. Micro-fuel cells were discussed as one of the main areas Motorola is exploring as a higher energy density power source for cell phones and Motorola is in joint development with Unidym focusing on developing SWNTs for electrodes of fuel cells. It was noted that Angstrom Power also recently demonstrated a micro-fuel cell for the SLVR handset.
There are two basic ways to integrate carbon nanotubes into an electronic device- 1) depositing pre-manufactured carbon nanotubes as part of a solution or coating or 2) directly growing the carbon nanotubes on the device. In either case one critical factor for many applications such as field emission displays, sensors, and transistors is the alignment and uniformity of nanotubes formed in an array. One methodology which is very frequently cited for the vertical alignment of high density carbon nanotube arrays is the anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) method in which an alumina film is exposed to an acidic bath resulting in the formation of nanopores which are used as the template from which to grow carbon nanotubes. This patent from inventors Martin Moskovits, Jung Li, and Thomas Haslett is fairly basic to the use of AAO templates for the formation of well aligned carbon nanotubes. One of the inventors (Martin Moskovits) is currently the Chief Technology Officer of API Nanotronics, a designer and manufacturer of semiconductors and electronics for military, industrial, and commercial applications.
A recent Lux Research report notes that venture capital spending is out of sync with return on investment with the majority of the revenue coming from nanomedical start-ups but more funding going to non-medical start-ups. Due to many nanotechnology start-ups focus on materials platforms rather than specific applications the typical time frame for return on investment required by VCs (3-7 years) may in fact be unattainable by such start-ups lacking a specific product that requires their material. Other start-ups Read the rest of this entry »
