Year: 2008
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Thesis (Ph.D.)--Georgetown University, 2008.; Includes bibliographical references. Lateral carbon nanotube (CNT)-based field emission devices have been developed for the purpose of fabricating diodes, triodes, and ultimately integrated circuits. The goal of this research is to create CNT-based field emission devices that offer high performance operation in harsh environments, particularly high temperature. Silicon based technologies suffer from an inherent inability to operate at temperatures above ∼300°C; however, a need still exists for such electronics. The devices developed by this research seek to address the need for robust microelectronics capable of wide temperature range operation without the need for elaborate cooling systems.; The field emitter structures consist of carbon nanotubes that are created using one of two distinct techniques: dielectrophoretic assembly or thermal chemical vapor deposition synthesis. I will discuss how such techniques can be used to create lateral CNT structures suitable for planar field emission while also enabling complete compatibility with modern semiconductor processing techniques. The electrical and thermal performance results of planar CNT field emitters operating in diode and triode configurations are also reported.; Carbon nanotube based field emission devices, such as those I have developed, have characteristics that could result in benefits to an exceedingly wide range of applications beyond operation in harsh environments. High-frequency analog applications are particularly of interest because of the very low capacitances and the high current/unit area capability of typical CNT field emitters, which is in the Amps/cm2 range. Also, since field emitted current is a very strong function of the applied electric field, these devices will undoubtedly find potential use in applications requiring large gain.
Author: A. H. Monica
Language: English
Subfield: Materials Chemistry
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1559121420