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Figure 3. Microphotographs of a passivated metallized Nanoblock and a 3X4 subsection

of a metallized array of Nanoblocks on glass substrate

Single Crystal

Silicon Wafers

MicroMachine

Processing

FSA

Fluid

Deposit & Bond

Nanoblocks

Nanoblocks

Etch/Punch

Receptors or

Holes

Glass Substrate

Material

Plastic Substrate

Material

Interconnect

Nanoblocks

Assemble

Display

Clean & Recycle

Unused

Nanoblocks

Figure 4. The FSA Process

FSA involves the following steps:

I. The process begins with the use of single crystal silicon wafers containing

anywhere from hundreds to millions of microelectronic devices. The devices can

be as simple as individual transistors or as complex as integrated circuits. Alien

Technology uses large commercial semiconductor foundries to produce these

microelectronic devices on standard CMOS IC processes.

Figure 1. Microphotograph of individual Nanoblocks on the surface of a dime

II. In the next step each separate microelectronic device is freed from the wafers

through an etching process which effectively slices the silicon wafer into

thousands or millions of separate functional devices having specific threedimensional

shapes. Alien has trademarked the term “Nanoblock” to describe

the devices freed from the silicon wafers. The process of etching, shaping, and

freeing the Nanoblocks is a patent-pending proprietary process.

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Figure 2. Artist’s rendition of Nanoblocks falling into substrate holes.

III. Separately, the underlying substrate – to which the Nanoblocks will be bonded –

has holes punched, etched, or laser drilled into it. These specifically shaped

holes correspond to the microelectronic devices, or Nanoblock shapes. This is

also a patent-pending proprietary process.

IV. The Nanoblocks are then suspended in a fluid, which is flowed across a

previously prepared substrate surface. As the Nanoblocks pass over the

substrate surface they drop into the correspondingly shaped holes.

This step is the heart of Alien’s patented process. It allows all of the

semiconductor circuitry for an active matrix display to be produced in IC fabs. It

also gives Alien freedom to select the most efficient mass production process in

manufacturing today, reel to reel web processing. Unlike conventional active

matrix display manufacturers, Alien is not constrained to processing inferior

(polysilicon or amorphous silicon) semiconductor devices on glass.

V. The Nanoblocks that did not assemble themselves into holes in the substrate

surface are removed from the fluid, cleaned and then re-suspended into cleaned

fluid to be flowed once again over another substrate. In this way the Nanoblocks

and suspension fluid continue to be “recycled “.

VI. In the last step, the Nanoblocks that did self-assemble into the holes in the

substrate are electrically connected via standard metallization techniques to

create the final integrated system, in this case as an active matrix display with

fully integrated on-board drive and control logic.

The basic principles behind FSA are very simple. In the FSA process, specifically

shaped semiconductor devices ranging in size from 10 microns to several hundred

microns are suspended in liquid and flowed over a surface which has correspondingly

shaped “holes” or receptors on it and into which the devices settle. The shape of the

devices and of the holes is designed so that the devices fall easily into place and are selfaligning.

Alien has successfully demonstrated the assembly of tens of thousands of

devices in a single process step.

With FSA, Alien can build active matrix electronic backplanes on rigid (glass or plastic)

or flexible (polyester, polyimide, polycarbonate, etc.) substrates. Active matrix

backplanes fabricated with the FSA process are capable of lowering the cost and

enhancing the performance of all known flat panel display technologies, including LCD,

PDLC, electrophoretic, ferroelectric, cholesteric, organic LED, electroluminescent, upand/

or down-converting phosphors and field-emission displays.