3 in fig2 to switching voltage 2 5 volts for example and set all release line voltages rl 0 rl 3 to equal the switch line voltage such that the switch line to release line electrostatic forces are zero u2014 all nt switches are programmed to the u201c on u201d state nt switches in u201c off u201d state switch to the u201c on u201d state and nt switches in the u201c on u201d state remain in the u201c on u201d state next when selectively switching from the u201c on u201d to the u201c off u201d state all bus line voltages in the nt switch array may be set at 1 to 3 volts for example to minimize the risk of switching unselected nt switches from the u201c on u201d to u201c off u201d state in this example nt switches 1 2 3 and 4 remain in the u201c on u201d position the other 12 nt switches in the nanotube crossbar switch in fig2 are selectively switched from the u201c on u201d state to the u201c off u201d state by way of example the nt switch at the intersection of sl 3 and rl 2 adjacent to nt switch 1 is switched to u201c off u201d state as follows switch line sl 3 is set to zero volts and release line rl 2 to release voltage to 5 5 volts for example releasing the nt switch to the u201c off u201d state to avoid disturbing other array nt switches sharing release line rl 2 the voltage on select lines sl 0 sl 1 and sl 2.