Abstract

RF CNTFETs are one of the most promising devices for surpassing incumbent RF-CMOS technology in the near future. Experimental proof of concept that outperformed Si CMOS at the 130 nm technology has already been achieved with a vast potential for improvements. This review compiles and compares the different CNT integration technologies, the achieved RF results as well as demonstrated RF circuits. Moreover, it suggests approaches to enhance the RF performance of CNTFETs further to allow more profound CNTFET based systems e.g., on flexible substrates, highly dense 3D stacks, heterogeneously combined with incumbent technologies or an all-CNT system on a chip.

Highlights

  • Among the many emerging technologies being investigated for extending the life of CMOS technology, single-walled carbon nanotube (CNT) field-effect transistors (FETs) have become one of the frontrunners

  • ELECTRICAL RESULTS Over the past decade, performance of multitube CNTFETs built with both Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) grown and solution-processed CNTs have improved significantly

  • After 2012, the USC group published a series of works [91], [93]–[97] on RF CNTFETs fabricated by solution-based networks and solution-based aligned CNT arrays, all with a T-shaped gate structure for gate resistance reduction

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

Among the many emerging technologies being investigated for extending the life of CMOS technology, single-walled carbon nanotube (CNT) field-effect transistors (FETs) have become one of the frontrunners This is attributed to the superior material properties of CNTs. E.g., compared to graphene, the reasonable bandgap of CNTs enables the realization of transistors having much lower leakage current and much higher radio-frequency (RF) power gain. Both values are still far below the theoretically achievable density of about 600 CNTs per μm (at 1.5 nm diameter) and the already measured drain current of more than 20 μA per tube [1], [13], [14] Considering this recent progress, one can safely expect the HF (high-frequency) performance of CNTFETs to significantly exceed that of RF-CMOS (for a given lithography node) in near future, making a near-term entry in the low-GHz RF market more probable than the realization of competitive large-scale digital circuits.

DEVICE TECHNOLOGY
RF CIRCUITS
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
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