Development and Evaluation of Thread Transistor Based on Carbon-Nanotube Composite Thread with Ionic Gel and Its Application to Logic Gates

Abstract

We propose a new type of flexible transistor based on carbon-nanotube (CNT) composite thread (CNTCT), i.e., a thread transistor, with ionic gel. In our previous study, we demonstrated that transistor operation was possible by combining metallic and semiconducting CNTCTs as gate and channel with an insulating material. However, its performance was not sufficient. Therefore, we here aim to improve it. For this, we tried to apply ionic gel as a dielectric layer to it. With this, the transistor was expected to be an electric-double-layer transistor. The transistor performance was improved, and the on/off ratio of the transistor increased by more than 4. This is a large value compared to our previous work. In addition, we not only evaluated the performance of the transistors, but also investigated whether they could be used as logic circuits. It was confirmed that the logic circuit composed of the thread transistor also operated correctly and stably for a long period of time. It was also confirmed that the output changed in response to weak external forces. These results indicate that it is a flexible transistor that can be used in a wide range of applications such as logic circuits and sensors.