Fabrication of CNT-FETs using PECVD-grown nanotubes

Carbon nanotube FETs (CNT-FETs) are very attractive because of their ideal one-dimensional structure of the channel, which would lead to the ballistic transport of the carrier and a large transconductance. Among various growth techniques, plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD) seems to be attractive because of its advantages such as the low-temperature growth on a large-area substrate. However, there are few reports which succeeded in growing single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) [4] and fabricating CNT-FETs using PECVD probably due to the ion bombardment damage of the plasma. We have recently reported that the insertion of a grid between the anode and cathode in the PECVD is effective in suppressing the ion bombardment damage. In this report, we grew SWNTs directly on the SiO₂,/Si substrate using the PECVD and the patterned catalysts, and succeeded in fabricating CNT-FETs.