Northrop Grumman Reveals Process to Produce Highly Aligned Carbon Nanotube Wires for Electronic Devices

Northrop Grumman Space & Mission Systems Corporation (Los Angeles, CA) has developed a manufacturing process for carbon nanotubes and carbon nanowires using a crystallography oriented catalyst.  The nanowires can be produced with a high degree of alignment and used in electronic devices say inventors Vincent Gambin and Roger Su-Tsung Tsai in U.S. Patent Application 20100029063.  The method is an improvement of previous processes to grow carbon nanotube wires by unorganized nucleation.

 A catalyst layer is deposited with a predetermined crystallographic configuration so as to control a growth parameter, such as an alignment direction, a diameter, a crystallinity and the like of the carbon nanowire. The catalyst layer is etched to expose a sidewall portion. The carbon nanowire is nucleated from the exposed sidewall portion. An electrical circuit device can include a single crystal substrate, such as Silicon, and a crystallographically oriented catalyst layer on the substrate having an exposed sidewall portion. In the device, carbon nanowires are disposed on the single crystal substrate aligned in a direction associated with the crystallographic properties of the catalyst layer.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the unorganized nucleation of carbon nanowire structures from randomly located catalyst particles on a catalyst layer.

FIG. 3A is a perspective view of an exemplary etched capped oriented catalyst layer,
FIG. 3B is a perspective view of exemplary carbon nanowires nucleated and grown from the etched oriented catalyst layer of FIG. 3A

FIG. 3C is a perspective view of exemplary metal contact layer applied on the carbon nanowires of FIG. 3A

 

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary procedure for the formation of aligned carbon nanowires