US 7,943,552 B2 · Inventory control

Abstract

A novel encoding system, compositions for use therein and methods for determining the source, location and/or identity of a particular item or component of interest is provided. In particular, the present invention utilizes a collection of one or more sizes of populations of semiconductor nanocrystals having characteristic spectral emissions, to “track” the source or location of an item of interest or to identify a particular item of interest. The semiconductor nanocrystals used in the inventive compositions can be selected to emit a desired wavelength to produce a characteristic spectral emission in narrow spectral widths, and with a symmetric, nearly Gaussian line shape, by changing the composition and size of the semiconductor nanocrystal. Additionally, the intensity of the emission at a particular characteristic wavelength can also be varied, thus enabling the use of binary or higher order encoding schemes.

Claims13

Dependent claims

A library of compounds, wherein each compound in the library is bound to an individual support, each support having associated therewith more than one population of semiconductor nanocrystals, each population having a distinct characteristic spectral emission, wherein each compound is attached to the support during a synthesis sequence,

wherein each nanocrystal comprises a Group II-VI semiconductor, a Group III-V semiconductor, or a Group IV semiconductor selected from a group consisting of ZnS, ZnSe, ZnTe, CdS, CdSe, CdTe, MgTe, GaN, GaP, GaAs, GaSb, InP, InAs, InSb, AlP, AlSb, AlS, Ge, or Si.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Inventory control

Life of this patent

Inventory control

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims13