title: Top-Contact Self-Aligned Printing for High-Performance Carbon Nanotube Thin-Film Transistors with Sub-Micron Channel Length.
abstract: Semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotubes are ideal semiconductors for printed thin-film transistors due to their excellent electrical performance and intrinsic printability with solution-based deposition. However, limited by resolution and registration accuracy of current printing techniques, previously reported fully printed nanotube transistors had rather long channel lengths (>20 μm) and consequently low current-drive capabilities (<0.2 μA/μm). Here we report fully inkjet printed nanotube transistors with dramatically enhanced on-state current density of ∼4.5 μA/μm by downscaling the devices to a sub-micron channel length with top-contact self-aligned printing and employing high-capacitance ion gel as the gate dielectric. Also, the printed transistors exhibited a high on/off ratio of ∼105, low-voltage operation, and good mobility of ∼15.03 cm2V-1s-1. These advantageous features of our printed transistors are very promising for future high-definition printed displays and sensing systems, low-power consumer electronics, and large-scale integration of printed electronics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and ‡Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California , Los Angeles, California 90089, United States.
authors.forename: Xuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and ‡Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California , Los Angeles, California 90089, United States.
authors.forename: Fanqi
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and ‡Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California , Los Angeles, California 90089, United States.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and ‡Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California , Los Angeles, California 90089, United States.
authors.forename: Yihang
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2491-9439
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and ‡Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California , Los Angeles, California 90089, United States.
authors.forename: Qingzhou
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and ‡Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California , Los Angeles, California 90089, United States.
authors.forename: Chongwu
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8448-8450
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhou
keywords: on-state current density; single-wall carbon nanotubes; top-contact self-aligned printing; ultrashort-channel thin-film transistors