Intellectual Property Law

US Patent 7868243 - Nanowire thermoelectric converter

Thermoelectric devices can be implemented with solid-state materials to provide electrically controlled cooling without moving parts. This patent teaches a way to implement thermoelectric cooling on the nanoscale using p-doped and n-doped nanowires. Claim 1 reads:

1. A nanostructure comprising:

a plurality of first nanowires, wherein:

each first nanowire is made of doped semi-conducting material of a first type;

each first nanowire includes an associated second nanowire made of doped semi-conducting material of a second type, wherein one of the first and second type is p-doped and the other is n-doped;

each first nanowire is coaxial with its associated second nanowire and is separated from its associated second nanowire by an insulating material;

each second nanowire has a tip; and

a droplet is disposed on the tip of each second nanowire so as to individually electrically connect the second nanowire to its associated first nanowire.

Full post as published by TinytechIP on January 12, 2011 (boomark / email).