Bulk carbon nanotube as thermal sensing and electronic circuit elements

Abstract

Bulk multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were successfully and repeatably manipulated by AC electrophoresis to form resistive elements between Au microelectrodes and were demonstrated to potentially serve as novel temperature sensor and simple electronic circuit elements. We have measured the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of these MWNT bundles and also integrated them into a constant current configuration for dynamic characterization. The I-V measurements of the resulting devices revealed that their power consumption was in the /spl mu/W range. Besides, the frequency response of the tested devices was generally over 100 kHz in constant current mode operation. Using the same technique, bulk MWNTs were manipulated between three-terminal microelectrodes to form a simple potential dividing device. The tested device was capable of dividing the input potential into a 2.7:1 ratio. Our demonstrations showed that carbon nanotubes are promising for fabricating ultra low power consumption devices for future sensing and electronic applications.