I-Corps: Novel Aligned Carbon Nanotube Arrays for Radiofrequency Technologies

I-Corps：用于射频技术的新型对齐碳纳米管阵列

• 批准号: 2313213
• 负责人: Michael Arnold
• 金额: $ 5万
• 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: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-05-15 至 2024-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2313213&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Novel; Aligned; Carbon; Nanotube

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a new semiconductor material platform based on carbon nanotubes that has enormous potential to comprehensively address challenges related to wireless radio frequency communication and connectedness. Carbon nanotubes have long been viewed as a potential next-generation semiconductor that offers large performance and integration gains for radio frequency components, particularly in switches and devices that receive and amplify weak radio frequency signals. These components are heavily used in nearly every cell phone, WiFi, internet-of-things, and military communications device. Higher signal-to-noise, more complex and efficient antenna technologies, higher operating frequency with less signal distortion than incumbent semiconductors, and better integration are all expected, which will be essential for enabling faster and more energy efficient NextG technologies. With further development, carbon nanotubes will be poised to become the semiconducting material of choice in many mainstream electronic technologies, significantly disrupting the microelectronics and radio frequency industries in the US and worldwide. This I-Corps project is based on the development of methods for the precise deposition and alignment of semiconducting carbon nanotubes to leverage their exceptional properties for electronic applications. This carbon nanotube alignment technology overcomes persistent decades-long challenges (e.g., lack of alignment, metallic nanotube impurities, low nanotube packing densities) that have prevented the adoption of nanotubes for semiconductor radio frequency components and other electronic device applications. The alignment is achieved from an inherently scalable process that can easily be dropped into existing radio frequency semiconductor fabrication facilities and processes. Moreover, the room temperature alignment methods are fast and area-scalable (already demonstrated on 4-inch wafers), offering a simple adoption path into existing device fabrication methodologies that allows for direct transition from current materials. Aligned and dense arrays of carbon nanotubes are poised to deliver performance improvements for many different microelectronic devices that cannot be achieved by incumbent materials. One of the most promising applications is in radio frequency devices, which will be the specific market of interest in this project. Aligned nanotubes will more broadly have the potential to revolutionize semiconductor electronics by significantly improving the energy efficiency and speed of logic chips and the sensitivity of biosensors, among other applications.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发基于碳纳米管的新的半导体材料平台，该平台具有巨大的潜力，可以全面应对与无线射频通信和连接性相关的挑战。碳纳米管长期以来一直被视为潜在的下一代半导体，可为射频组件提供较大的性能和集成增长，尤其是在接收和放大弱射频信号的开关和设备中。这些组件在几乎所有手机，WiFi，The-Things和Morcorial Communications设备中都大量使用。与现有半导体相比，信号失真较小的更高信号到噪声，更复杂，更有效的天线技术，更高的信号失真以及更好的整合，这对于使更快，更节能的Nextg技术至关重要。随着进一步的开发，碳纳米管将有望成为许多主流电子技术中选择的半导体材料，从而严重破坏了美国和全球的微电子和无线电频率行业。该I-Corps项目基于开发半导体碳纳米管的精确沉积和比对的方法，以利用其出色的特性用于电子应用。这种碳纳米管对齐技术克服了持续数十年的挑战（例如，缺乏对齐，金属纳米管杂质，低纳米管填料密度），这些挑战阻止了纳米管的采用，用于半导体无线电频率组件和其他电子设备应用。对齐方式是从固有的可扩展过程中实现的，该过程可以很容易地将其放入现有的射频半导体制造设施和过程中。此外，室温比对方法是快速且可降低的（已经在4英寸晶片上证明），为现有的设备制造方法提供了一个简单的采用路径，可以直接从当前材料过渡。碳纳米管的一排列和密集的阵列有望为许多不同的微型设备提供性能改进，这些设备无法通过现有材料来实现。最有希望的应用之一是在射频设备中，这将是该项目感兴趣的特定市场。对齐的纳米管将通过显着提高逻辑芯片的能效和速度和生物传感器的敏感性，从而更广泛地有可能彻底改变半导体电子设备。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并认为通过基金会的知识优点和广泛的效果来评估NSF的法定任务。