Carbon Nanotubes for High-Performance

The prospect, for nanotube field effect transistors that can compete with silicon technology, is extremely promising but critical tasks still lie ahead. By J. Appenzeller, Senior Member IEEE ABSTRACT | Carbon nanotube devices offer intrinsic advan-tages for high-performance logic device applications. The ultrasmall body of a carbon nanotubeVthe tube diameterVis the key feature that should allow aggressive channel length scaling, while the intrinsic transport properties of the nanotube ensure at the same time high on-currents. In addition, the narrowness of the tube is critical to implementation of novel device concepts like the tunneling transistor. By understanding the unique capabilities of carbon nanotubes and using them in unconventional designs, novel nanoelectronic applicationsmay become feasible. However, much better control of materials quality must be obtained, and new fabrication processes must be developed before such applications can be realized