Annealing nano-to-micro contacts for improved contact resistance

Nano-to-micro electrical contact resistance between carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and larger-scale silicon systems are investigated using both low-and high-power annealing techniques. Carbon nanotubes locally synthesized and suspended between two silicon microbridges are used as the test platform. The annealing technique involves Joule heating of either the CNT/silicon system or the secondary silicon bridge only at low or high input power for various times. Of the 15 samples tested, results show that the contact resistance decreases for 60% of the samples and two of the 15 samples show a decrease in contact resistance greater than 50%. Higher power and longer time anneals show the greatest improvement in reducing the contact resistance. This technique can potentially reduce the contact resistance for integration of CNTs with MEMS or microelectronics systems.