Advancement of microelectronics-grade carbon nanotube materials for NRAM® device manufacture

This work focuses on the development of electronics-grade carbon nanotube (CNT) formulations for commercialization of CNT-based memory devices. Preparing and providing these critical materials is key to empowering innovation and tapping the potential promised for CNT memory device technologies. This paper will review the quality improvements made by Brewer Science in the development of its third-generation CNT materials, which demonstrate a 10X increase in CNT concentration with a 5X reduction in metal ion content in non-surfactant, aqueous, room-temperature-stable formulations. To provide an integrated solution for CNT memory, these improvements are needed to reduce material consumption and overall processing time and cost. However, increased CNT concentration leads to loss of shelf life stability of the formulations and increases the concentrations of metal ions that must be removed. Both the development and characterization of analytical tests with wafer validation testing will be reviewed. Critical parameters, device architecture, and array performance results for CNT memory device in a 130-nm, 4-MB memory device is also reviewed.