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Patterned Liquid Metal Contacts for Printed Carbon Nanotube Transistors.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Andrews, JB; Mondal, K; Neumann, TV; Cardenas, JA; Wang, J; Parekh, DP; Lin, Y; Ballentine, P; Dickey, MD; Franklin, AD
Published in: ACS nano
June 2018

Flexible and stretchable electronics are poised to enable many applications that cannot be realized with traditional, rigid devices. One of the most promising options for low-cost stretchable transistors are printed carbon nanotubes (CNTs). However, a major limiting factor in stretchable CNT devices is the lack of a stable and versatile contact material that forms both the interconnects and contact electrodes. In this work, we introduce the use of eutectic gallium-indium (EGaIn) liquid metal for electrical contacts to printed CNT channels. We analyze thin-film transistors (TFTs) fabricated using two different liquid metal deposition techniques-vacuum-filling polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microchannel structures and direct-writing liquid metals on the CNTs. The highest performing CNT-TFT was realized using vacuum-filled microchannel deposition with an in situ annealing temperature of 150 °C. This device exhibited an on/off ratio of more than 104 and on-currents as high as 150 μA/mm-metrics that are on par with other printed CNT-TFTs. Additionally, we observed that at room temperature the contact resistances of the vacuum-filled microchannel structures were 50% lower than those of the direct-write structures, likely due to the poor adhesion between the materials observed during the direct-writing process. The insights gained in this study show that stretchable electronics can be realized using low-cost and solely solution processing techniques. Furthermore, we demonstrate methods that can be used to electrically characterize semiconducting materials as transistors without requiring elevated temperatures or cleanroom processes.

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Published In

ACS nano

DOI

EISSN

1936-086X

ISSN

1936-0851

Publication Date

June 2018

Volume

12

Issue

6

Start / End Page

5482 / 5488

Related Subject Headings

  • Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
 

Citation

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Andrews, J. B., Mondal, K., Neumann, T. V., Cardenas, J. A., Wang, J., Parekh, D. P., … Franklin, A. D. (2018). Patterned Liquid Metal Contacts for Printed Carbon Nanotube Transistors. ACS Nano, 12(6), 5482–5488. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.8b00909
Andrews, Joseph B., Kunal Mondal, Taylor V. Neumann, Jorge A. Cardenas, Justin Wang, Dishit P. Parekh, Yiliang Lin, Peter Ballentine, Michael D. Dickey, and Aaron D. Franklin. “Patterned Liquid Metal Contacts for Printed Carbon Nanotube Transistors.ACS Nano 12, no. 6 (June 2018): 5482–88. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.8b00909.
Andrews JB, Mondal K, Neumann TV, Cardenas JA, Wang J, Parekh DP, et al. Patterned Liquid Metal Contacts for Printed Carbon Nanotube Transistors. ACS nano. 2018 Jun;12(6):5482–8.
Andrews, Joseph B., et al. “Patterned Liquid Metal Contacts for Printed Carbon Nanotube Transistors.ACS Nano, vol. 12, no. 6, June 2018, pp. 5482–88. Epmc, doi:10.1021/acsnano.8b00909.
Andrews JB, Mondal K, Neumann TV, Cardenas JA, Wang J, Parekh DP, Lin Y, Ballentine P, Dickey MD, Franklin AD. Patterned Liquid Metal Contacts for Printed Carbon Nanotube Transistors. ACS nano. 2018 Jun;12(6):5482–5488.
Journal cover image

Published In

ACS nano

DOI

EISSN

1936-086X

ISSN

1936-0851

Publication Date

June 2018

Volume

12

Issue

6

Start / End Page

5482 / 5488

Related Subject Headings

  • Nanoscience & Nanotechnology