Radio Frequency Transistors Using Aligned Semiconducting Carbon Nanotubes with Current-Gain Cutoff Frequency and Maximum Oscillation Frequency Simultaneously Greater than 70 GHz.
In this paper, we report record radio frequency (RF) performance of carbon nanotube transistors based on combined use of a self-aligned T-shape gate structure, and well-aligned, high-semiconducting-purity, high-density polyfluorene-sorted semiconducting carbon nanotubes, which were deposited using dose-controlled, floating evaporative self-assembly method. These transistors show outstanding direct current (DC) performance with on-current density of 350 μA/μm, transconductance as high as 310 μS/μm, and superior current saturation with normalized output resistance greater than 100 kΩ·μm. These transistors create a record as carbon nanotube RF transistors that demonstrate both the current-gain cutoff frequency (ft) and the maximum oscillation frequency (fmax) greater than 70 GHz. Furthermore, these transistors exhibit good linearity performance with 1 dB gain compression point (P1dB) of 14 dBm and input third-order intercept point (IIP3) of 22 dBm. Our study advances state-of-the-art of carbon nanotube RF electronics, which have the potential to be made flexible and may find broad applications for signal amplification, wireless communication, and wearable/flexible electronics.
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California , Los Angeles, California 90089, United States.
Yu
Y
Cao
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison , Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States.
Gerald J
GJ
Brady
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Southern California , Los Angeles, California 90089, United States.
Hui
H
Gui
Carbonics Inc. , Marina del Rey, California 90292, United States.
Chris
C
Rutherglen
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison , Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States.
Michael S
MS
Arnold
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California , Los Angeles, California 90089, United States.|Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Southern California , Los Angeles, California 90089, United States.
Chongwu
C
Zhou
70 GHz; aligned; carbon nanotubes; linearity; polyfluorene-sorted; radio frequency; record RF performance; self-aligned T-shape gate