Paper NS-TuP24
Dielectrophoresis-assisted Deposition and Alignment of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes for Electronic Device Fabrication

Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 6:00 pm, Room Hall 3

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have been considered as a promising nanostructured material for the realization of future nanoelectronic devices because of their unique electrical properties such as the ballistic transportation of electrons or holes in SWCNTs. In this paper, we report deposition and alignment of SWCNTs using the dielectrophoresis (DEP) method and fabrication of single-walled carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNTFETs) with semiconductor materials as the source and drain materials. Ultra-purified HiPCO-grown single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) from Carbon Nanotechnologies, Inc. (CNI) were used for the fabrication of CNTFETs. N-Methyl Pyrrolidone (NMP) was used to disperse SWCNTs in solutions. The dispersion of SWCNTs in the solvent was ultrasonically assisted, and then centrifuged. The degree of dispersion was examined by SEM. Dielectrophoresis (DEP) method was used to deposit, align, and assemble carbon nanotubes (CNTs) across the source and drain of CNTFETs to form the channel. Microfabrication techniques such as UV lithography and e-beam lithography were used to fabricate the CNTFETs. The gap between the source and drain varied from 800 nm to 3 um. Both metals such as gold and semiconductors such as bismuth telluride (Bi₂Te₃) were used as the source and drain materials for the CNTFETs. The drain-source current (I_DS) versus drain-source voltage (V_DS) and gate voltage (V_G) was characterized for the fabricated CNTFETs. The fabricated devices and measured electrical results will be reported in the Conference.