High yield assembly and electron transport investigation of semiconducting-rich local-gated carbon nanotube field effect transistors

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are ideal for use in nanoelectronic devices because of their high current density, mobility and subthreshold swing. However, assembly methods must be developed to reproducibly align all-semiconducting SWNTs at specific locations with individually addressable gates for future integrated circuits. We show high yield assembly of local-gated semiconducting SWNTs assembled via AC-dielectrophoresis (DEP). Using individual local gates and scaling the gate oxide shows faster switching behavior and lower power consumption. The devices were assembled by DEP between prefabricated Pd source and drain electrodes with a thin Al/Al2O3 gate in the middle, and the electrical characteristics were measured before anneal and after anneal. Detailed electron transport investigations on the devices show that 99% display good FET behavior, with an average threshold voltage of 1V, subthreshold swing as low as 140 mV/dec, and on/off current ratio as high as 8x105. Assembly yield can also be increased to 85% by considering devices where 2-5 SWNT bridge the gap between source and drain electrode. To examine the characteristics of devices bridged by more than one SWNT, similar electron transport measurements were taken for 35 devices with electrodes bridged by 2-3 SWNT and 13 devices connected by 4-5 SWNT. This high yield directed assembly of local-gated SWNT-FETs via DEP may facilitate large scale fabrication of CMOS compatible nanoelectronic devices