Carbon Nanotubes in Microelectronic Applications

Carbon nanotubes with their outstanding electrical and mechanical properties are suggested as interconnect material of the future and as switching devices, which could outperform silicon devices. In this paper we will introduce nanotubes, specify the applications, where nanotubes can contribute to the advancement of Moore’s law and show our progress of nanotube process integration in a microelectronic compatible way. The growth of single individual nanotubes at lithographically defined locations on whole wafers as a key requirement for the successful implementation of nanotubes is shown. In terms of nanotube transistors we propose a vertical nanotube transistor concept which outperforms the ITRS requirements for the year 2016. The performance is mainly limited by contact resistances, but by comparison with silicon devices we show that fabricated nanotube transistors already today exceed the values for transconductance, on-resistance and drive current of silicon devices.