Manufacturing Aligned Arrays of Semiconducting Carbon Nanotubes for Faster and More Energy Efficient Next-Generation Electronics

制造半导体碳纳米管对齐阵列，以实现更快、更节能的下一代电子产品

• 批准号: 1462771
• 负责人: Michael Arnold
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-05-01 至 2019-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1462771&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Manufacturing; Aligned; Arrays; Semiconducting; Carbon

Carbon nanotubes are nanomaterials that are comprised entirely of carbon atoms arranged in a cylinder. The diameter of a carbon nanotube is only about 1 nanometer or 1 billionth of a meter. Carbon nanotubes are among the best conductors of electricity that have ever been discovered. They promise to increase the speed and complexity of computing devices, increase the bandwidth and energy efficiency of commercial and military wireless communications technologies, and lead to new types of unconventional electronics that are not rigid but can be stretched, rolled, and folded. To realize nanotubes' promise, researchers must first learn how to assemble them into aligned arrays on substrates. This award supports fundamental research on a recently discovered manufacturing process for achieving this goal. Inks containing semiconducting carbon nanotubes are spread into thin films on the surface of a water trough. The nanotubes deposit and align themselves on a substrate as it is withdrawn from the trough. The overarching objective of the research is to increase the uniformity and improve the organization of the nanotube arrays to open the door for large-area nanotube array manufacturing for commercial applications. These advances will benefit the U.S. economy, high-tech electronics industries, and society. Moreover, the efforts on nanomaterials metrology and manufacturing will impact the development of new undergraduate laboratories on materials characterization for engineering education.The nanotube assembly occurs via a process called floating evaporative self-assembly. The uniformity and organization of nanotubes will be improved by: (1) determining the mechanisms that direct nanotube organization during floating evaporative self-assembly; (2) controlling packing density and inter-nanotube spacing by using multifunctional polymers to wrap the nanotubes and mediate inter-nanotube interactions during assembly; and (3) developing metrology to understand the link between processing-structure-electrical properties. In preliminary research, floating evaporative self-assembly has been exploited to align arrays of ultrahigh purity semiconducting nanotubes prepared using conjugated polymers as nanotube-differentiating agents. The excellent degree of alignment and control over the packing density of the nanotubes using this method has led to gains in nanotube array field effect transistor performance of 1400x in on/off ratio (at constant conductance) and 30-100x in on-conductance (at constant on/off ratio). Increasing the uniformity of these arrays will open the door for commercial opportunities in thin film applications and macroelectronics. Further controlling the microstructure will open the door for increased conductance and commercial opportunities in high-frequency linear amplifiers and logic transistors.

碳纳米管是纳米材料，完全由圆柱体中排列的碳原子组成。碳纳米管的直径仅为1纳米或十亿米。碳纳米管是有史以来最好的电力导体之一。他们承诺会提高计算设备的速度和复杂性，提高商业和军事无线通信技术的带宽和能源效率，并导致新型的非常规的电子设备，这些电子产品不是刚性，但可以拉伸，滚动和折叠。为了实现纳米管的承诺，研究人员必须首先学习如何将它们组装成底物上的阵列。该奖项支持针对实现这一目标的最近发现的制造过程的基本研究。含有半导体碳纳米管的油墨被散布成水槽表面的薄膜。纳米管从槽中撤回时将其沉积并在基板上对齐。该研究的总体目的是提高统一性并改善纳米管阵列的组织，以打开用于商业应用的大型纳米管阵列制造的大门。这些进步将使美国经济，高科技电子产业和社会有益。此外，对纳米材料计量学和制造的努力将影响新的本科实验室在工程教育的材料表征上的发展。纳米管组装通过称为浮动蒸发自组装的过程进行。纳米管的均匀性和组织将通过：（1）确定在浮动蒸发自组装过程中指导纳米管组织的机制； （2）通过使用多功能聚合物包裹纳米管并介导组装过程中的纳米管相互作用来控制填料密度和纳米管间距； （3）开发计量学以了解处理结构 - 电特性之间的联系。在初步研究中，浮动蒸发自组装已被利用以使使用共轭聚合物作为纳米管差异剂的超高纯度半导体纳米管的阵列对齐。使用这种方法对纳米管的填料密度的极好程度和控制导致纳米管阵列磁场效应晶体效应晶体管的晶体管晶体管的ON/OFF比率为1400倍（在恒定电导率下）和30-100倍（在传统上）恒定/OFF比率）。增加这些阵列的统一性将为薄膜应用和大型电子学的商业机会打开大门。进一步控制微观结构将为高频线性放大器和逻辑晶体管的电导率和商业机会增加开发。