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

I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种基于碳纳米管的新型半导体材料平台，该平台具有巨大的潜力，可以全面解决与无线射频通信和连接相关的挑战。碳纳米管长期以来一直被视为潜在的下一代半导体，它为射频元件提供了巨大的性能和集成增益，特别是在接收和放大弱射频信号的开关和设备中。这些组件被大量使用在几乎所有的手机、WiFi、物联网和军事通信设备中。更高的信噪比、更复杂、更高效的天线技术、比现有半导体更高的工作频率、更少的信号失真，以及更好的集成度，这些都是实现更快、更节能的NextG技术所必需的。随着进一步的发展，碳纳米管将成为许多主流电子技术中半导体材料的选择，极大地颠覆了美国和世界范围内的微电子和射频工业。这个I-Corps项目的基础是开发半导体碳纳米管的精确沉积和排列方法，以利用它们在电子应用中的特殊性能。这种碳纳米管对准技术克服了数十年来一直阻碍纳米管用于半导体射频元件和其他电子器件应用的挑战（例如，缺乏对准，金属纳米管杂质，低纳米管封装密度）。校准是通过固有的可扩展工艺实现的，可以很容易地将其放入现有的射频半导体制造设施和工艺中。此外，室温校准方法快速且可扩展（已在4英寸晶圆上演示），为现有器件制造方法提供了一种简单的采用途径，允许从当前材料直接过渡。排列和密集的碳纳米管阵列有望为许多不同的微电子器件提供性能改进，这是现有材料无法实现的。最有前途的应用之一是射频设备，这将是本项目感兴趣的特定市场。通过显著提高逻辑芯片的能量效率和速度，以及生物传感器的灵敏度，以及其他应用，排列纳米管将更广泛地具有革新半导体电子学的潜力。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.