Methods for the electronic assembly and fabrication of devices

Details Methods for the electronic assembly and fabrication of devices Methods for the electronic assembly and fabrication of devices

1996-12-06

2003-11-25

Marschel, Ardin H. (Department: 1631)

Chemical apparatus and process disinfecting, deodorizing, preser

Analyzer, structured indicator, or manipulative laboratory...

Means for analyzing liquid or solid sample

C435S006120, C435S091100

Reexamination Certificate

active

06652808

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to methodologies and techniques which utilize programmable functionalized self-assembling nucleic acids, nucleic acid modified structures, and other selective affinity or binding moieties as building blocks for: (1) creating molecular electronic and photonic mechanisms; (2) for the organization, assembly, and interconnection of nanostructures, submicron and micron sized components onto silicon or other materials; (3) for the organization, assembly, and interconnection of nanostructures, submicron and micron sized components within perimeters of microelectronic or optoelectronic components and devices; (4) for creating, arraying, and manufacturing photonic and electronic structures, devices, and systems; (5) for the development of a high bit density (large byte) three and four dimensional optical data storage materials and devices; and (6) for development of low density optical memory for applications in authentication, anti-counterfeiting, and encryption of information in document or goods. This invention also relates to associated microelectronic and optoelectronic devices, systems, and manufacturing platforms which provide electric field transport and selective addressing of self-assembling, nanostructures, sub-micron and micron sized components to selected locations on the device itself or onto other substrate materials.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The fields of molecular electronics/photonics and nanotechnology offer immense technological promise for the future. Nanotechnology is defined as a projected technology based on a generalized ability to build objects to complex atomic specifications. Drexler,
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA
, 78:5275-5278, (1981). Nanotechnology generally means an atom-by-atom or molecule-by-molecule control for organizing and building complex structures all the way to the macroscopic level. Nanotechnology is a bottom-up approach, in contrast to a top-down strategy like present lithographic techniques used in the semiconductor and integrated circuit industries. The success of nanotechnology may be based on the development of programmable self-assembling molecular units and molecular level machine tools, so-called assemblers, which will enable the construction of a wide range of molecular structures and devices. Drexler, “Engines of Creation,” Doubleday Publishing Co., New York, N.Y. (1986). Present molecular electronic/photonic technology includes numerous efforts from diverse fields of scientists and engineers. Carter, ed., “Molecular Electronic Devices II,” Marcel Dekker, Inc, New York, N.Y. (1987). Those fields include organic polymer based rectifiers, Metzger et al., “Molecular Electronic Devices II,” Carter, ed., Marcel Dekker, New York, N.Y., pp. 5-25 (1987), conducting conjugated polymers, MacDiarmid et al.,
Synthetic Metals
, 18:285 (1987), electronic properties of organic thin films or Langmuir-Blogett films, Watanabe et al.,
Synthetic Metals
, 28:C473 (1989), molecular shift registers based on electron transfer, Hopfield et al.,
Science
, 241:817 (1988), and a self-assembly system based on synthetically modified lipids which form a variety of different “tubular” microstructures. Singh et al., “Applied Bioactive Polymeric Materials,” Plenum Press, New York, N.Y., pp. 239-249 (1988). Molecular optical or photonic devices based on conjugated organic polymers, Baker et al.,
Synthetic Metals
, 28:D639 (1989), and nonlinear organic materials have also been described. Potember et al.,
Proc. Annual Conf. IEEE in Medicine and Biology
, Part 4/6:1302-1303 (1989).
However, none of the cited references describe a sophisticated or programmable level of self-organization or self-assembly. Typically the actual molecular component which carries out the electronic and/or photonic mechanism is a natural biological protein or other molecule. Akaike et al.,
Proc. Annual Conf. IEEE in Medicine and Biology
, Part 4/6:1337-1338 (1989). There are presently no examples of a totally synthetic programmable self-assembling molecule which produces an efficient electronic or photonic structure, mechanism or device.
Progress in understanding self-assembly in biological systems is relevant to nanotechnology. Drexler,
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA
, 78:5275-5278 (1981), and Drexler, “Engines of Creation,” Doubleday Publishing Co., New York, N.Y. (1986). Areas of significant progress include the organization of the light harvesting photosynthetic systems, the energy transducing electron transport systems, the visual process, nerve conduction and the structure and function of the protein components which make up these systems. The so called bio-chips described the use of synthetically or biologically modified proteins to construct molecular electronic devices. Haddon et al.,
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
, 82:1874-1878 (1985), McAlear et al., “Molecular Electronic Devices II,” Carter ed., Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York N.Y., pp. 623-633 (1987).
Some work on synthetic proteins (polypeptides) has been carried out with the objective of developing conducting networks. McAlear et al., “Molecular Electronic Devices,” Carter ed., Marcel Dekker, New York, N.Y., pp. 175-180 (1982). Other workers have speculated that nucleic acid based bio-chips may be more promising. Robinson et al., “The Design of a Biochip: a Self-Assembling Molecular-Scale Memory Device,”
Protein Engineering
, 1:295-300 (1987).
Great strides have also been made in the understanding of the structure and function of the nucleic acids, deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA, Watson, et al., in “Molecular Biology of the Gene,” Vol. 1, Benjamin Publishing Co., Menlo Park, Calif. (1987), which is the carrier of genetic information in all living organisms (See FIG.
1
). In DNA, information is encoded in the linear sequence of nucleotides by their base units adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymidine (A, G, C, and T). Single strands of DNA (or polynucleotide) have the unique property of recognizing and binding, by hybridization, to their complementary sequence to form a double stranded nucleic acid duplex structure. This is possible because of the inherent base-pairing properties of the nucleic acids: A recognizes T, and G recognizes C. This property leads to a very high degree of specificity since any given polynucleotide sequence will hybridize only to its exact complementary sequence.
In addition to the molecular biology of nucleic acids, great progress has also been made in the area of the chemical synthesis of nucleic acids. This technology has developed so automated instruments can now efficiently synthesize sequences over 100 nucleotides in length, at synthesis rates of 15 nucleotides per hour. Also, many techniques have been developed for the modification of nucleic acids with functional groups, including: fluorophores, chromophores, affinity labels, metal chelates, chemically reactive groups and enzymes. Smith et al.,
Nature
, 321:674-679 (1986); Agarawal et al.,
Nucleic Acids Research
, 14:6227-6245 (1986); Chu et al.,
Nucleic Acids Research
, 16:3671-3691 (1988).
An impetus for developing both the synthesis and modification of nucleic acids has been the potential for their use in clinical diagnostic assays, an area also referred to as DNA probe diagnostics. Simple photonic mechanisms have been incorporated into modified oligonucleotides in an effort to impart sensitive fluorescent detection properties into the DNA probe diagnostic assay systems. This approach involved fluorophore and chemilluminescent-labeled oligonucleotides which carry out Förster nonradiative energy transfer. Heller et al., “Rapid Detection and Identification of Infectious Agents,” Kingsbury et al., eds., Academic Press, New York, N.Y. pp. 345-356 (1985). Förster nonradiative energy transfer is a process by which a fluorescent donor group excited at one wavelength transfers its absorbed energy by a resonant dipole coupling process to a suitable fluorescent acceptor group. The efficiency of energy transfer between a suitable donor and acceptor group has a 1/r
6
distance dependency (see Lakowicz et al.,

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