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High-performance electronics using dense, perfectly aligned arrays of single-walled carbon nanotubes

Nature Nanotechnology volume 2, pages 230–236 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have many exceptional electronic properties. Realizing the full potential of SWNTs in realistic electronic systems requires a scalable approach to device and circuit integration. We report the use of dense, perfectly aligned arrays of long, perfectly linear SWNTs as an effective thin-film semiconductor suitable for integration into transistors and other classes of electronic devices. The large number of SWNTs enable excellent device-level performance characteristics and good device-to-device uniformity, even with SWNTs that are electronically heterogeneous. Measurements on p- and n-channel transistors that involve as many as ∼2,100 SWNTs reveal device-level mobilities and scaled transconductances approaching ∼1,000 cm2 V−1 s−1 and ∼ 3,000 S m−1, respectively, and with current outputs of up to ∼1 A in devices that use interdigitated electrodes. PMOS and CMOS logic gates and mechanically flexible transistors on plastic provide examples of devices that can be formed with this approach. Collectively, these results may represent a route to large-scale integrated nanotube electronics.

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Figure 1: Perfectly aligned arrays of long, linear SWNTs and their implementation in thin-film-type transistors.
Figure 2: Capacitance effects and density scaling studies of transistors that use aligned arrays of SWNTs.
Figure 3: High on/off ratios, current outputs and transconductances in transistors that use aligned arrays of SWNTs as the semiconductor, on rigid and flexible substrates.
Figure 4: High-performance top gate transistors that use aligned arrays of SWNTs for the semiconductor.
Figure 5: n- and p-type SWNT array transistors, with implementation in CMOS and PMOS logic gates.

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Acknowledgements

We thank T. Banks and K. Colravy for help with processing, using facilities at the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant NIRT-0403489 and the US Department of Energy, Division of Materials Sciences under Award No. DEFG02-91ER45439, through the Frederick Seitz MRL and Center for Microanalysis of Materials at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. S.J.K. acknowledges fellowship support from the Institute of Information Technology Assessment of Korea. N.P. and M.A.A. acknowledge the support from the Network for Computational Nanotechnology. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to J.A.R.

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Author notes

  1. Seong Jun Kang and Coskun Kocabas: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, 61801, Illinois, USA

    Seong Jun Kang, Moonsub Shim & John A. Rogers

  2. Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, 61801, Illinois, USA

    Coskun Kocabas & Taner Ozel

  3. Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, 61801, Illinois, USA

    John A. Rogers

  4. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, 61801, Illinois, USA

    John A. Rogers

  5. Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, 61801, Illinois, USA

    John A. Rogers

  6. Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, 61801, Illinois, USA

    John A. Rogers

  7. Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, 61801, Illinois, USA

    Moonsub Shim & John A. Rogers

  8. School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, 47907-1285, Indiana, USA

    Ninad Pimparkar & Muhammad A. Alam

  9. Department of Physics and Center for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, 18015, Pennsylvania, USA

    Slava V. Rotkin

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Contributions

S.J.K, C.K. and J.A.R. designed the experiments, S.J.K., C.K. and T.O. performed the experiments, S.J.K., C.K., T.O., M.S., N.P., M.A.A., S.V.R. and J.A.R. analysed the data, S.J.K, C.K. and J.A.R. wrote the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Seong Jun Kang, Coskun Kocabas or John A. Rogers.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Supplementary figures S1—S14 (PDF 1650 kb)

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Kang, S., Kocabas, C., Ozel, T. et al. High-performance electronics using dense, perfectly aligned arrays of single-walled carbon nanotubes. Nature Nanotech 2, 230–236 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2007.77

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