The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 25, 2004
Filed:
Oct. 18, 1999
Robert William Filas, Bridgewater, NJ (US);
Sungho Jin, Millington, NJ (US);
Gregory Peter Kochanski, Dunellen, NJ (US);
Wei Zhu, Warren, NJ (US);
Agere Systems, Inc., Allentown, PA (US);
Abstract
An improved process for fabricating emitter structures from nanowires, wherein the nanowires are coated with a magnetic material to allow useful alignment of the wires in the emitter array, and techniques are utilized to provide desirable protrusion of the aligned nanowires in the final structure. In one embodiment, nanowires at least partially coated by a magnetic material are provided, the nanowires having an average length of about 0.1 &mgr;m to about 10,000 &mgr;m. The nanowires are mixed in a liquid medium, and a magnetic field is applied to align the nanowires. The liquid medium is provided with a precursor material capable of consolidation into a solid matrix, e.g., conductive particles or a metal salt, the matrix securing the nanowires in an aligned orientation. A portion of the aligned nanowires are exposed, e.g., by etching a surface portion of the matrix material, to provide desirable nanowire tip protrusion.