Dielectrophoretic reconfiguration of nanowire interconnects

Silicon nanowire interconnects are dielectrophoretically assembled, reconfigured, and disassembled between gold electrodes in benzyl alcohol. Assembly of up to 55 µm long nanowires is demonstrated. Conductance enhancement is observed in the presence of single nanowires trapped between submerged electrodes. Phase inversion of electrode potentials allows the reversible reconfiguration of nanowires, either serially or in parallel. For disassembly, high-voltage bursts are observed to detonate trapped nanowires. The reconfiguration of colloidal electronic nanostructures opens up the possibility of nanostructured connection architectures for computation.