Carbon Nanotube Synthesis Device Fabrication And Circuit Design For Digital Logic Applications

Carbon Nanotube Field Effect Transistor (CNFET) technology has received a lot of attention in the past few years as a promising extension to silicon-CMOS for future digital logic integrated circuits. While recent research has advanced CNFET technology past many important milestones, robust and scalable solutions must be developed to realize the full potential of CNFETs. Thus, this thesis aims to develop a suite of techniques, spanning from material synthesis to circuit solutions, compatible with very-large-scale integration (VLSI). Specifically, to enable the real-world engineering of carbon nanotube integrated circuits, this thesis presents (1) wafer-scale aligned CNT growth, (2) wafer-scale CNT Transfer, (3) wafer-scale device and circuit fabrication techniques, and (4) ACCNT, a VLSI-compatible circuit design solution to surmounting the problem of metallic CNTs. These techniques culminated in the successful demonstration of CNT transistors, inverters, and NAND logic gates on a wafer scale. Furthermore, this thesis sheds light on important design considerations for the demonstration of a simple CNT "computer" and suggests a few critical directions for future work in the field of carbon nanotube technology. In contributing the above, this thesis hopes to propel carbon nanotube technology forward towards the vision of robust, large-scale integrated circuits using high-density carbon nanotubes.