(Invited) Alteration of the Electrical Transport in Carbon Nanotube Network Field-Effect Transistors Using Polymer Encapsulants and Gate Dielectrics

Abstract

Enriched semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) inks of high purity opens a wealth of possibilities for device fabrication using printing techniques and solution processes. [1] Logics, displays, sensors and large-scale integrated circuits [2] appear to be within reach. For those promises to concretize, a better control over parameters such as carrier type and mobility, operation power and device-to-device variability is needed. Beside the ambient effect (notably water and oxygen) on the transport of carbon nanotube network field-effect transistors (CNN-FETs), the nature of the surrounding materials (as a passivation layer or as a gate dielectric) appears to play a crucial role in determining the device’s characteristics.Firstly, we have tested a large number of polymeric materials as the bottom gate in three-terminal CNN-FETs. We have found that the transport characteristics parameters such as the threshold voltage and the hysteresis are affected by the chemical nature of the polymer. [3] Subjecting those CNN-FETs with various gate dielectrics to a series of volatile analytes, we observed drastically different responses which suggests the usefulness of polymer gate dielectric variations in cross-reactive sensors arrays.Secondly, polymeric materials were used as an encapsulant over bottom gate CNN-FETs. [4] A smooth and continuous variation of the threshold voltage has been achieved by using a series of poly(styrene–co–2-vinyl pyridine) copolymers with different monomer ratios. A surface charge density measurement methodology has been developed to rationalize the threshold voltage variations upon encapsulation with various polymers. Finally, we explored the use of n-doping molecules blended with polymer encapsulants as an efficient way to obtain n-type transport characteristics. This strategy is further used in the implementation of simple p-n junctions showing a modest rectification.