Radio frequency analog electronics based on carbon nanotube transistors

doi:10.1073/pnas.0709734105

Radio frequency analog electronics based on carbon nanotube transistors

Departments of *Physics,
^†Materials Science and Engineering,
^§Electrical and Computer Engineering, and
^¶Chemistry,
^‖Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, and
^‡Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign, IL 61801; and
^††Northrop Grumman Electronics Systems, MS-3B10, 1212 Winterson Road, Linthicum, MD 21090

Edited by George M. Whitesides, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and approved December 10, 2007 (received for review October 12, 2007)

Abstract

The potential to exploit single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in advanced electronics represents a continuing, major source of interest in these materials. However, scalable integration of SWNTs into circuits is challenging because of difficulties in controlling the geometries, spatial positions, and electronic properties of individual tubes. We have implemented solutions to some of these challenges to yield radio frequency (RF) SWNT analog electronic devices, such as narrow band amplifiers operating in the VHF frequency band with power gains as high as 14 dB. As a demonstration, we fabricated nanotube transistor radios, in which SWNT devices provide all of the key functions, including resonant antennas, fixed RF amplifiers, RF mixers, and audio amplifiers. These results represent important first steps to practical implementation of SWNTs in high-speed analog circuits. Comparison studies indicate certain performance advantages over silicon and capabilities that complement those in existing compound semiconductor technologies.

Footnotes

**To whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail: hong.zhang{at}ngc.com or jrogers{at}uiuc.edu
Author contributions: C.K., H.-s.K., T.B., J.A.R., A.A.P., S.V.K., J.E.B., and H.Z. designed research; C.K., H.-s.K., T.B., A.A.P., S.V.K., and J.E.B. performed research; C.K., H.-s.K., J.A.R., A.A.P., S.V.K., J.E.B., and H.Z. analyzed data; and C.K., J.A.R., A.A.P., J.E.B., and H.Z. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0709734105/DC1.