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Threshold voltage tuning and printed complementary transistors and inverters based on thin films of carbon nanotubes and indium zinc oxide

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Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have emerged as an important material for printed macroelectronics. However, achieving printed complementary macroelectronics solely based on CNTs is difficult because it is still challenging to make reliable n-type CNT transistors. In this study, we report threshold voltage (V th) tuning and printing of complementary transistors and inverters composed of thin films of CNTs and indium zinc oxide (IZO) as p-type and n-type transistors, respectively. We have optimized the V th of p-type transistors by comparing Ti/Au and Ti/Pd as source/drain electrodes, and observed that CNT transistors with Ti/Au electrodes exhibited enhancement mode operation (V th < 0). In addition, the optimized In:Zn ratio offers good n-type transistors with high on-state current (I on) and enhancement mode operation (V th > 0). For example, an In:Zn ratio of 2:1 yielded an enhancement mode n-type transistor with V th ∼ 1 V and I on of 5.2 μA. Furthermore, by printing a CNT thin film and an IZO thin film on the same substrate, we have fabricated a complementary inverter with an output swing of 99.6% of the supply voltage and a voltage gain of 16.9. This work shows the promise of the hybrid integration of p-type CNT and n-type IZO for complementary transistors and circuits.

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Author notes

  1. Pattaramon Vuttipittayamongkol

    Present address: School of Information Technology, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, 57100, Thailand

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA

    Pattaramon Vuttipittayamongkol, Haitian Chen, Bilu Liu & Chongwu Zhou

  2. Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA

    Fanqi Wu, Xuan Cao & Chongwu Zhou

Authors
  1. Pattaramon Vuttipittayamongkol
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  2. Fanqi Wu
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  3. Haitian Chen
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  4. Xuan Cao
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Correspondence to Chongwu Zhou.

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These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Vuttipittayamongkol, P., Wu, F., Chen, H. et al. Threshold voltage tuning and printed complementary transistors and inverters based on thin films of carbon nanotubes and indium zinc oxide. Nano Res. 8, 1159–1168 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-014-0596-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-014-0596-7

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