US Patent 7218004 - Fusing nanowires using crystal growth

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7218004.html

Individually nanowires can have very useful electrical characteristics emerging from ballistic transport, quantum confinement, etc. However, when the nanowires are used in a clustered array the gaps between individual nanowires can reduce such usefulness. This patent from HP teaches a method that fuses nanowires so that clustered arrays of nanowires can maintain the characteristics of individual nanowires. Claim 1 reads:

1. A nanowire interconnection system comprising: means for applying nanowires on a surface of a substrate in a cluster; a solution having a controllable saturation condition, the solution comprising a crystal precursor solute dissolved in a solvent, the nanowires being immersed in the solution; and means for controlling the saturation condition of the solution, such that new crystal material is grown on a surface of the immersed nanowires to fuse together the nanowires of the cluster.