Monday, July 10, 2006

US Patent 7073157 - Signal Restoration for Molecular Electronics

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7073157.pdf

Molecular electronics concerns individual or small groups of molecules acting as resistors, transistors, or other electronics elements. Within the past few years Hewlett Packard has led the way in developing a platform for developing molecular electronics by exploiting crossbar array architectures that uses crossed p and n doped nanowires separated by molecular films to form crosspoints as connection elements for molecular electronic junctions. While HP is the predominant force behind the development of crossbar molecular electronics, this patent, based on a cooperative venture between Caltech and Harvard, adds to the collective knowledge of crossbar molecular electronics by providing teachings relevant to signal restoration. Claim 1 reads:

1. An architecture for nanoscale electronics comprising: arrays of crossed nanoscale wires, each array comprising a plurality of crosspoints between nanoscale wires, the crosspoints being selectively programmable, wherein nanoscale wires of one array are shared by other arrays, thus providing signal propagation between the one array and the other arrays; nanoscale signal restoration elements, allowing an output of a first array to be used as an input to a second array, wherein signal restoration occurs without routing of the signal to non-nanoscale wires; and nanoscale driving devices of crossed nanoscale wires for selectively programming at least some of the crosspoints.