Carbon-based electronics

Article By:

Guo, Jing Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

Last reviewed:2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.YB084570

In recent years, significant progress has been made in understanding device physics and in identifying potential applications of carbon-based electronics. In a carbon nanotube (CNT) or a graphene, carriers can travel without scattering at low-bias conditions. The speed at which carriers travel is high, which promises ultrafast device switching and ultrahigh device speed. Deposition of high permittivity gate insulators does not degrade the excellent carrier transport properties. The conduction and valence bands are symmetric, which is advantageous for complementary electronics applications. The conduction-band bottom and the valence-band top are at the same wave vector point, which enables optical emission. A CNT or a graphene nanoribbon (GNR) can be either semiconducting or metallic, depending on its structure, which leads to potential applications in both nanoscale devices and interconnects. Because of these attractive features, carbon-based electronics is receiving much attention for its potential application in future integrated circuits. Compared to mature semiconductor electronics technologies, however, significant challenges, such as synthesis of high-quality materials, variation between devices, and wafer-scale integration, still remain to be addressed for carbon-based electronics.

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