Electrical Modeling of Carbon Nanotube Vias

This paper investigates the electrical behavior of vias made by bundles of either single-walled or multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The electronic transport in the CNTs is modeled through the kinetic inductance, the quantum capacitance, and the electrical resistance, which depend on the equivalent number of the CNT conducting channels. The dependence of such a number on the CNT radius, chirality, and temperature is described by using the quasi-classical transport theory. Since for the common mode the effects of the intershell tunneling are negligible, the interaction between different shells is described by using the classical electromagnetic theory. A simple but accurate equivalent lumped model for vias made by CNT bundles is proposed. Vias of interest in nanoelectronic applications are here analyzed, with particular focus on the behavior of electrical parameters versus temperature and frequency.