Room temperature carbon nanotubes integrated on CMOS
AssigneeUniversity of Florida Research Foundation, Inc.
InventorsHuikai Xie, Ant Ural
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Abstract
Embodiments of the invention integrate carbon nanotubes on a CMOS substrate using localized heating. An embodiment can allow the CMOS substrate to be in a room-temperature environment during the carbon nanotube growth process. Specific embodiments utilize a maskless post-CMOS microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) process. The post-CMOS MEMS process according to an embodiment of the present invention provides a carbon nanotube growth process that is foundry CMOS compatible. The maskless process, according to an embodiment, eliminates the need for photomasks after the CMOS fabrication and can preserve whatever feature sizes are available in the foundry CMOS process. Embodiments integrate single-walled carbon nanotube devices into a CMOS platform.
Claims35
A method of integrating carbon nanotubes and complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuitry, comprising:
- providing a CMOS substrate with a microbridge having an embedded layer of heater material;
- forming a layer of material compatible with carbon nanotube growth proximate to the microbridge, wherein the layer of material compatible with carbon nanotube growth is in contact with one or more interconnect layers on the CMOS substrate;
- activating the embedded heater material so as to raise the temperature in a growth region proximate the microbridge;
- and
- growing carbon nanotubes in the growth region,
- wherein the carbon nanotubes grown in the growth region do not contact the layer of heater material.
A device, comprising:
- a CMOS substrate;
- and
- carbon nanotubes integrated with the CMOS substrate, wherein integrating the carbon nanotubes with the CMOS substrate comprises:
- providing a CMOS substrate with a microbridge having an embedded layer of heater material;
- forming a layer of material compatible with carbon nanotube growth proximate to the microbridge, wherein the layer of material compatible with carbon nanotube growth is in contact with one or more interconnect layers on the CMOS substrate;
- activating the embedded heater material so as to raise the temperature in a growth region proximate the microbridge;
- and
- growing carbon nanotubes in the growth region,
- wherein the carbon nanotubes grown in the growth region do not contact the layer of heater material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.