A nanotube-on-insulator (NOI) approach toward scalable and integratable nanotube devices on sapphire

We present a novel nanotube-on-insulator (NOI) approach to produce high-yield nanotube devices based on aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes. First, we managed to grow aligned nanotube arrays with controlled density on crystalline, insulating sapphire substrates, which bear analogy to industry-adopted silicon-on-insulator substrates. Based on the nanotube arrays, we demonstrated registration-free fabrication of top-gated field-effect transistors with minimized parasitic capacitance. Our approach has great potential for high-density, large-scale integrated systems based on carbon nanotubes for microelectronics