Recent Progress in Obtaining Semiconducting Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes for Transistor Applications

Ahmad E Islam; John A Rogers; Muhammad A Alam

doi:10.1002/adma.201502918

Recent Progress in Obtaining Semiconducting Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes for Transistor Applications

Adv Mater. 2015 Dec 22;27(48):7908-37. doi: 10.1002/adma.201502918. Epub 2015 Nov 5.

Authors

Ahmad E Islam^{1

2}, John A Rogers³, Muhammad A Alam⁴

Affiliations

¹ Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, OH, 45433, USA.
² National Research Council, Washington, DC, 20001, USA.
³ Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.
⁴ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA.

PMID: 26540144
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201502918

Abstract

High purity semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWCNTs) with a narrow diameter distribution are required for high-performance transistors. Achieving this goal is extremely challenging because the as-grown material contains mixtures of s-SWCNTs and metallic- (m-) SWCNTs with wide diameter distributions, typically inadequate for integrated circuits. Since 2000, numerous ex situ methods have been proposed to improve the purity of the s-SWCNTs. The majority of these techniques fail to maintain the quality and integrity of the s-SWCNTs with a few notable exceptions. Here, the progress in realizing high purity s-SWCNTs in as-grown and post-processed materials is highlighted. A comparison of transistor parameters (such as on/off ratio and field-effect mobility) obtained from test structures establishes the effectiveness of various methods and suggests opportunities for future improvements.

Keywords: carbon nanotubes; field-effect mobility; on/off ratios, semiconducting purity; transistor applications.