[paper] CNTFET Technology for RF Applications

Martin Hartmann^1,2, Sascha Hermann^1,2,3, Phil F. Marsh⁴, Christopher Rutherglen⁴, 

Dawei Wang⁵, Li Ding⁶, Lian-Mao Peng⁶, Martin Claus⁷, 

and Michael Schröter⁷ (Senior Member, IEEE)

CNTFET Technology for RF Applications:

Review and Future Perspective

(Invited Paper)

IEEE Journal of Microwaves, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 275-287, 2021

DOI: 10.1109/JMW.2020.3033781

¹Center for Microtechnology, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany
²Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden, Germany
³Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nanosystems, Chemnitz, Germany
⁴Carbonics Inc., Culver City, USA
⁵Carbon Technology Inc., Irvine, USA
⁶Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices 

and Center for Carbon-based Electronics,  Peking University, China
⁷Chair for Electron Devices and Integrated Circuits, Technical University Dresden, Germany

Abstract: RF CNTFETs are one of the most promising devices for surpassing incumbent RF-CMOS technology in the near future. Experimental proof of concept that outperformed Si CMOS at the 130 nm technology has already been achieved with a vast potential for improvements. This review compiles and compares the different CNT integration technologies, the achieved RF results as well as demonstrated RF circuits. Moreover, it suggests approaches to enhance the RF performance of CNTFETs further to allow more profound CNTFET based systems e.g., on flexible substrates, highly dense 3D stacks, heterogeneously combined with incumbent technologies or an all-CNT system on a chip.

Fig: (a) sketch of a T-shape top gate on 4" wafer and (b) corresponding SEM image,

(c) SEM image in false colors depicting a multifinger buried gate CNTFET on an 8" wafer.

Acknowledgement: This work was supported in part by the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the Cluster of Excellence “Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden” (EXC1056/1); in part by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research under the project reference numbers 16FMD01K, 16FMD02 and 16FMD03, under the individual DFG Grant SCR695/6%25; in part by the National Key Research & Development Program under Grant 2016YFA0201901; in part by the National Science Foundation of China under Grants 61888102 and 61671020; in part by the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission under Grant Z181100004418011; in part by the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST); in part by the The Saudi Technology Development and Investment Company (TAQNIA); in part by the U.S. Army STTR Contract W911NF19P002; and in part by the SBIR programs from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory.