Patent ID: 7357877

Claim:
A method of manufacturing nanowires from semiconductor material, comprising the steps of: providing a patterned etching mask having openings on a surface of a substrate made of the semiconductor material, which openings have a substantially uniform pitch; placing the substrate with the etching mask in a liquid etchant for the semiconductor material; anodically etching so as to form substantially parallel pores with a pitch corresponding to the pitch of the openings in the etching mask at a current density such that the diameter of the pores becomes at least as great as the pitch of the pores, whereby nanowires are formed; oxidizing a surface of the nanowires, whereupon said surface is removed by etching; and removing the nanowires from the substrate by means of vibration, wherein the anodic etching is carried out in a first time period and a second time period, which periods correspond to a first and a second region along the nanowires, such that etching takes place in the second period at a higher current density than in the first period so that the nanowires formed have a greater diameter in the first region than in the second region, with the result that the nanowires break off in the second region upon removal.