Crosstalk between nanotube devices: contact and channel effects

• Published in: Nanotechnology Vol. 17; no. 9; pp. 2381 - 2385
• Main Author: Leonard, Francois
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 14.05.2006
• ISSN: 0957-4484; 1361-6528
• DOI: 10.1088/0957-4484/17/9/051

At reduced dimensionality, Coulomb interactions play a crucial role in determining device properties. While such interactions within the same carbon nanotube have been shown to have unexpected properties, device integration and multi-nanotube devices require the consideration of inter-nanotube interactions. We present calculations of the characteristics of planar carbon nanotube transistors including interactions between semiconducting nanotubes and between semiconducting and metallic nanotubes. The results indicate that inter-tube interactions affect both the channel behaviour and the contacts. For long channel devices, a separation of the order of the gate oxide thickness is necessary to eliminate inter-nanotube effects. Because of an exponential dependence of this length scale on the dielectric constant, very high device densities are possible by using high-K dielectrics and embedded contacts.