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Exploring the Performance Limit of Carbon Nanotube Network Film Field‐Effect Transistors for Digital Integrated Circuit Applications
Author(s) -
Zhao Chenyi,
Zhong Donglai,
Han Jie,
Liu Lijun,
Zhang Zhiyong,
Peng LianMao
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.201808574
Subject(s) - materials science , carbon nanotube , thin film transistor , transconductance , transistor , optoelectronics , carbon nanotube field effect transistor , electronics , threshold voltage , electronic circuit , field effect transistor , nanotechnology , voltage , electrical engineering , engineering , layer (electronics)
Carbon nanotube (CNT) network thin film field‐effect transistors (TFTs), which used to be considered as low cost and low performance transistors for display driving or flexible electronics, have recently been used to construct digital integrated circuits (ICs). However, few studies have focused on exploring how optimal CNT TFTs can be achieved according to transistor standards in digital applications. In this work, sub‐micrometer TFTs based on high‐quality and high‐purity solution‐derived CNT films are fabricated and the potential performance restriction due to the switching‐off property of these transistors is explored. Specifically, subthreshold swing (SS) severely degrades upon scaling down the channel length or increasing the CNT density in TFTs, and a tradeoff between peak transconductance ( g m ) and SS in CNT TFTs due to the random orientation distribution of CNTs has been observed in experiments and proven by theoretical simulations. A well‐designed balance between g m and SS is necessary to build CNT TFTs with SS of 120 mV dec −1 and g m of 150 µS µm −1 to meet device requirements in digital ICs powered by a supplied voltage, V DD , lower than 2.0 V.