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:
Sep. 14, 2004
Filed:
Jun. 20, 2001
John D. Olivas, Redondo Beach, CA (US);
Abstract
The invention involves tunneling tips to their conducting surface, and specifically the deposition of a monolayer of fullerene C onto the conducting plate surface to protect the tunneling tip from contact. The Fullerene C molecule is approximately spherical, and a monolayer of fullerene has a thickness of one nanometer, such that a monolayer thereby establishing the theoretical distance desired between the MEMS' tunneling tip and the conducting plate. Exploiting the electrical conductivity of C , the tip can be accurately positioned by simply monitoring conductivity between the fullerene and the tunneling tip. By monitoring the conductivity between the tip and the fullerene layer as the tip is brought in proximity, the surfaces can be brought together without risk of contacting the underlying conducting surface. Once the tunneling tip is positioned at the one nanometer spacing, with only the monolayer of fullerene between the tunneling tip and the conducting plate, the monolayer of C can be broken down thermally and removed chemically leaving only the tunneling tip and the conducting plate at the ideal tunneling spacing. Alternatively, the properties of fullerene allow the tunneling process to occur directly across the fullerene monolayer.