Self-Anchoring Process to Construct Highly-Aligned-Carbon Nanotube Transistors

Carbon nanotube (CNT) integrated circuit has recently achieved significant breakthroughs in aligned CNTs (A-CNTs) purity and density, driving notable improvements in transistor on-state performance and integration density. However, the performance of A-CNT transistors remains critically constrained by nanotube mutual stacking and aggregation during field effect transistors (FETs) fabrication, which results in degraded off-state performance in short-channel FETs. In this study, we propose an innovative self-anchoring process (SAP), yttrium oxide (YO_<i>x</i>) sacrificial layer anchoring in wet clean, and source-drain electrodes anchoring in lift-off, to fabricate the highly aligned-CNT FETs, effectively suppressing CNT stacking during fabrication. The SAP top-gate (TG) FETs show idea-aligned CNT channel after fabrication, and exhibit excellent switching characteristics, including a record-low subthreshold swing (SS) of 81 mV/decade, an on/off current ratio exceeding 6 orders of magnitude, and a peak transconductance (<i>G</i>_m) of 1.8 mS/μm, significantly enhancing off-state performance compared with the traditional FET fabrication process. The SAP is a promising complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible process for advanced-nodes A-CNT transistors, offering a practical pathway to constructing high-performance, low-power carbon-based integrated circuits.