Realization of Highly Controllable Electrolysis Process by Application of Carbon Nanotubes in Field Effect Transistors
- PDF / 707,072 Bytes
- 6 Pages / 612 x 792 pts (letter) Page_size
- 56 Downloads / 204 Views
1258-R10-03
Realization of Highly Controllable Electrolysis Process by Application of Carbon Nanotubes in Field Effect Transistors Jalal Naghsh Nilchi1 and Shamsoddin Mohajerzadeh1 1 Thin Film and Nano Electronics Lab, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Tehran, 1439957131, Iran.
ABSTRACT We have proposed, fabricated and tested a novel structure of Field-Effect Transistor (FET) combined with carbon nanotubes (CNT) to control the process of electrolysis. Our proposed device includes a conventional n-channel MOSFET, with a selective growth of carbon nanotubes in its drain region. MOSFET is made according to standard NMOS fabrication flow chart utilizing the advantage of a self-aligned process. The CNT growth is carried out in plasma and at a high temperature environment, so a thick layer of chromium (200nm) was deposited on the whole structure as a passivating layer to overcome MOSFET degradation caused by dopant escape. Afterward we deposited and patterned a thin layer of nickel (10nm) as the catalyst of CNT growth. The CNTs are grown in a DC-PECVD system. Following this step, we etched away the chromium layer completely. After the growth, the transistors needed an annealing treatment in Argon chamber at 500oC for 5 hours to retrieve their electrical behavior. We believe this happens because the atomic hydrogen can pass through the chromium layer and passivate the impurities and annealing in Argon chamber give them enough energy to leave the silicon. In this structure, the CNT collection is used as one-side electrode of electrolysis and the MOSFET acts as the current controller. We tested the structure to electrolyze a one molar mixture of water and salt and observed well-controlled current-voltage characteristics. INTRODUCTION Electrolysis is a method of using electric current to drive a chemical reaction, which does not take place in normal conditions. Electrolysis is highly important as a stage in the separation of elements from liquids and is used to analyse the components of a given solvent [1]. In recent years, there have been great efforts to realize the idea of Lab on a Chip. One of the main parts of this lab is a device which is capable of analyzing the environment around it (the blood for example). So a micro electrolysis device is needed to be constructed. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted great interest due to their extraordinary structural, electrical, and mechanical properties, and their wide range of potential applications [2]. The chiral vector along which the graphite layer is wrapped, make the CNTs either metallic or semiconducting [3, 4]. Many reports have been published on the utilization of the individual or assembly of the nanotubes. For instance, the nanotubes were used for advanced scanning probe [5], room temperature transistor [6], and field emitter arrays for flat panel display [7]. Due to the strictly one-dimensional transport in CNTs, transport occurs in ballistic and reduced scattering region which results in fabrication of CNT field effect transistors wit
Data Loading...
