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Contract Opportunity

Opportunity:

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), operated by the Lawrence Livermore National Security (LLNS), LLC under contract no. DE-AC52-07NA27344 (Contract 44) with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is offering the opportunity to enter into a collaboration to further develop and commercialize its new design principles for integrating into a deposited semiconducting device the ability to apply electric fields to nanotube assembly channels in order to create an electronic gating effect.

Background:

Molecular sensors are important across many industries, including automotive, aerospace, fossil energy, and biomedical (e.g., wearables). Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been shown to be particularly promising as molecular sensors because of their high electrical conductivity, thermal and chemical stability, one dimensional form factor, high specific surface area and carbon lattice structure that makes them easy to functionalize. The ability to control and measure the flow of ionic material through CNTs would increase the utility of CNT technologies. This would allow assemblies of nanotubes or other nanostructures to be used as field-effect transistors (FET), electrical sensors, and other devices that rely on electrical current modulation from an externally applied field, or "gate". To maximize sensitivity of a sensing device, it is common to apply a gating voltage to modulate the channel current and maximize the signal gain registered from a detection event. However, gating a thick film comprised of high-surface-area nanostructures or out-of-plane architectures is not possible with typical top-gate and bottom-gate configurations. The electric field may not extend sufficiently or uniformly through the entire ensemble of nanostructures, so their currents will not be modulated as desired.

Existing approaches for gating nanostructured films both non-contact techniques, which involve light probes, as well as contact methods, have limitations. For thick films of nanostructures, light probes are not ideal due to the limits of optical penetration depth. Existing contact methods are not effective for applications where the surface of the nanostructure must remain exposed for functionalization and sensing by direct contact with a medium.

Description:

LLNL researchers has devised several design strategies to enable gating of thick architectures (e.g., 2D planar, 3D out-of-plane) made of nanostructures while maintaining substantial surface area available for sensing. Specific examples described in the patent application (2021/0249618) are given for carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and including typical channel gate configurations, gate-all-around strips, gate-all-around in series, core, trench, ridge, or spike gates, and 3D out of plane architectures.

Advantages/Benefits:

• Can be used in electrical sensors as a means of tuning and maximizing the gain and thus the sensitivity, limit of detection, and response time of the sensor.


• Enables gating of nanostructured films of large thicknesses (> ~100 nm) that extend beyond the electric field generated by typical back-gate or top-gate configurations.


• Leaves a substantial portion of the nanostructure surface exposed so that it can be functionalized and available for sensing in a liquid or gas medium.


• Capable of building out-of-plane architectures to provide gated sensor function with enormous nanostructure surface area on a small footprint.

Potential Applications:

• Gas and liquid phase molecular sensors


• Field effect transistors for logic gates

Development Status:

Current stage of technology development: TRL 2

LLNL has filed for patent protection on this invention.

U.S. Patent Application No. 2021/0249618 Electrically Gated Nanostructure Devices published 2/8/2021

LLNL is seeking industry partners with a demonstrated ability to bring such inventions to the market. Moving critical technology beyond the Laboratory to the commercial world helps our licensees gain a competitive edge in the marketplace. All licensing activities are conducted under policies relating to the strict nondisclosure of company proprietary information.

Please visit the IPO website at https://ipo.llnl.gov/resources for more information on working with LLNL and the industrial partnering and technology transfer process.

Note: THIS IS NOT A PROCUREMENT. Companies interested in commercializing LLNL's Methods for electrically gating nanostructures should provide an electronic OR written statement of interest, which includes the following:

1. Company Name and address.


2. The name, address, and telephone number of a point of contact.


3. A description of corporate expertise and/or facilities relevant to commercializing this technology.

Please provide a complete electronic OR written statement to ensure consideration of your interest in LLNL's Methods for electrically gating nanostructures.

The subject heading in an email response should include the Notice ID and/or the title of LLNL’s Technology/Business Opportunity and directed to the Primary and Secondary Point of Contacts listed below.

Written responses should be directed to:

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Innovation and Partnerships Office

P.O. Box 808, L-779

Livermore, CA 94551-0808

Attention: IL-13506

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