HOUSTON (UPI) -- U.S. engineers said a nanotechnology called "nanopantography" might make liquid crystal displays obsolete.
University of Houston Professors Vincent Donnelly, Demetre Economou and Paul Ruchhoeft developed the technique that allows the mass production of nanotech devices that could move the television industry from LCD displays to what the scientists call a field emission display.
FEDs use a large array of carbon nanotubes to create a higher-resolution picture than LCDs The nanotech fabrication technique can mass produce an ordered array of carbon nanotubes, Economou said.
The method uses standard photolithography and etching to selectively remove parts of a thin film and create arrays of ion-focusing micro-lenses on a substrate, such as a silicon wafer.
A beam of ions is directed at the substrate. When the wafer is tilted, the desired pattern is simultaneously replicated in billions of many closely spaced holes over an area, limited only by the size of the ion beam.
Economou, Donnelly and Ruchhoeft said the technology can be commercially available in five to 10 years, becoming a viable method for large-scale production.
The university has filed a patent application to cover the new technology.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International
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