nanoREV.

Thomson Reuters releases lists of hottest areas of R&D IP

Thomas Reuters has released a list of what it calls the hottest areas of R&D in the global intellectual property marketplace.  The list includes IP rankings for the biofuels, telecom and bio-related nanotechnology industries which have been experiencing increased growth in the last few years.  The report also identifies some of the more active companies in each field.

Relying on data from the Derwent World Patents Index®, the report cites that patenting activity in the area of bio-related nanotechnology grew 160% between 2003 and 2008 to 7,399 patents.  It appears that further growth through 1Q-2009 has brought that total to 9,842, with Japan followed by the US leading in top assignees and top countires for filing patents.   Meanwhile the report also states that the volume of issued patents for lab-on-a-chip technology has risen by 220% during the same time.  

While the phrase “issued patents” is used throughout, the report discloses that both granted patents and published applications were included in the analysis.   Additionally, it is unclear what search keywords were used to gather the data.  Thus, some relevant patents and applications could easily have been overlooked, especially if an inadequate or narrow search criteria was adopted by the analyst authors. 

A pdf of the report is available here: http://ip.thomsonreuters.com/media/pdfs/InnovationHotSpots_June2009.pdf

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Memristor Business Landscape

Nanotechnology is likely to have a big impact to the non-volatile memory market in the next few years as the further scalabilty of  flash memory becomes more difficult. One interesting solution developed by Hewlett Packard last year is the memristor, a nanoscale circuit element theoretically proposed in 1971 but only recently realized. The memristor does not require transistors to save data and instead uses a voltage controlled alteration of the electrical resistance states of thin film materials to switch between a high and low resistance. It turns out that several other companies such as Samsung, Micron Technologies, Axon Technologies, and Unity Semiconductor all seem to be developing variations of memristor memory to achieve a “transistor-less” memory cell architecture within the next decade.  A review of the business landscape of memristor electronics is available at this link.

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Highlights of Nanotech Conference & Expo 2009

The annual Nanotech conference (NSTI 2009) was held this past week in Houston, Texas. Some of the highlights include:

Bayer discussed their FDA approval of their multiwall carbon nanotubes called Baytubes(R) which they have reported to be producible at a 60 metric ton annual capacity.  (link)

Angstron Materials and Vorbeck Materials presented their competing approaches to producing graphene sheets as an alternative to carbon nanotubes. 

RusNano, established in 2007 to build nanotechnology infrastructure in Russia, discussed a variety of their investment projects in photovoltaics and nanocoatings with plans to invest 20 billion Euro by 2015. The second annual Russian Nanotech conference is scheduled for October.  

The University of Minnesota’s Tech Transfer department made a particularly strong showing with eight different presentations covering a variety of topics including photonic sensors, biomass energy, liquid/gas separation, neural nanoprobes, and microfluidic insulin delivery.

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TechConnect 2009

As the economy continues to spiral downward one remaining hope is that the fundamental nanoscience research of the past few decades can be translated into cheaper, cleaner and more efficient technologies capable of restoring economic growth. At the upcoming 2009 TechConnect Summit  the opportunity exists to make the connections and alliances necessary for this to take effect.  The summit is co-located with the Nanotech and Cleantech Conference and Expo in Houston, Tx on May 3-7.

The session list for the TechConnect Summit includes corporate needs presentations from leading Fortune 500 companies such as: Honda Motor Corporation, BASF, Kodak Company, Samsung Ventures, Medtronic, Merck Research, Dow Chemicals, Omron, Sanyo, and many others.

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NanoRAM based on Memcapacitors and Meminductors

Last year researchers at Hewlett-Packard published a paper in Nature noting a link between materials used for a new type of non-volatile memory called RRAM and the theory of the memristor- a theoretical circuit element originally predicted in 1971 by UC Berkeley professor Leon Chua. The HP researchers demonstrated an increase in the memristance characteristics at nanometer scales producing lower power dissipation and higher speed switching as the thickness of the memristance material is reduced.  

However, one defect in the memristor is that it still includes some resistive heat dissipation. In order to overcome this problem Prof. Massimiliano Di Ventra and Prof Leon Chua have developed an extended theory of memcapacitors and meminductors which are similar to memristors but do not have the problem of heat dissipation. Their paper entitled “Circuit elements with memory: memristors, memcapacitors and meminductors” notes some examples of memcapacitive effects in various materials based on nanoparticle-based thin films and, in addition to the potential for non-volatile memory, suggests the applicability to neuromorphic computer architectures which may lead to a variety of new applications in the future.

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Intellectual Ventures Nanotechnology Patents

In a recent article from Nature Nanotechnology Intellectual Ventures is profiled as a company building a large patent portfolio in nanotechnology. Due to the large number of universities producing nanotech. patents this may be a good idea by providing a “one stop shopping” for both universities and companies in nanotechnology IP transactions. However, it could also lead to overspeculation if not managed correctly. Intellectual Ventures also patents in a variety of areas under the name “Searete”. As of this posting (Feb. 1, 2009) 254 patents and pregrants patent publications are assigned to Searete which includethe prefix “nano” somewhere in the patent specification.

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Hopes for carbon nanotube space elevator

Basic concepts of a “space elevator” predate the development of rocket-based space travel but have always lacked a practical system or materials to achieve the objective. Recently, as reported in a TimesOnline article, a team of British scientists led by Alan Windle have developed a process for manufacturing carbon nanotube ribbons which could be one step closer to a feasible space elevator system. Prof. Windle already has several patents pending for carbon nanotube production and alignment (e.g. US 2006/0133982) and at least one U.S. patent (US 6,981,674) has been issued to space elevators which mention carbon nanotubes.

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BlackLight Power Inc. and the Hydrino Theory

Although innovative, none of the applications of nanomaterials to energy production devices such as solar panels and fuel cells go so far as to violate the laws of physics. However, a company called Blacklight Power is developing a system based on a new theory of the hydrogen atom which is in conflict with conventional quantum mechanics. While the new theory may not have much creditability among the scientific establishment, this apparently has not prevented Blacklight from working out deals with Energy companies in New Mexico based on the technology.

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Top Ten U.S. Nanotechnology Patents for 2008

TinyTechIP has a listing of the top 10 patents in nanotechnology issued over the last year including some basic patents to the memristor, graphene electrodes, and carbon nanotube filaments for lightbulbs.

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Memristors on Youtube

Last month a symposium was held at UC Berkeley on a new type of nanoscale circuit element called the memristor which could have a big impact in areas such as non-volatile memory and neuromorphic computing. Youtube has video of the conference available here and a six minute primer available here.

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