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Direct Fabrication of Micron-Thickness PVA-CNT Patterned Films by Integrating Micro-Pen Writing of PVA Films and Drop-on-Demand Printing of CNT Micropatterns. NANOMATERIALS 2021; 11:nano11092335. [PMID: 34578653 PMCID: PMC8466232 DOI: 10.3390/nano11092335] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2021] [Revised: 09/03/2021] [Accepted: 09/06/2021] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
The direct fabrication of micron-thickness patterned electronics consisting of patterned PVA films and CNT micropatterns still faces considerable challenges. Here, we demonstrated the integrated fabrication of PVA films of micron-thickness and CNT-based patterns by utilising micro-pen writing and drop-on-demand printing in sequence. Patterned PVA films of 1-5 μm in thickness were written first using proper micro-pen writing parameters, including the writing gap, the substrate moving velocity, and the working pressure. Then, CNT droplets were printed on PVA films that were cured at 55-65 °C for 3-15 min, resulting in neat CNT patterns. In addition, an inertia-pseudopartial wetting spreading model was established to release the dynamics of the droplet spreading process over thin viscoelastic films. Uniform and dense CNT lines with a porosity of 2.2% were printed on PVA substrates that were preprocessed at 55 °C for 9 min using a staggered overwriting method with the proper number of layers. Finally, we demonstrated the feasibility of this hybrid printing method by printing a patterned PVA-CNT film and a micro-ribbon. This study provides a valid method for directly fabricating micron-thickness PVA-CNT electronics. The proposed method can also provide guidance on the direct writing of other high-molecular polymer materials and printing inks of other nanosuspensions.
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Gaviria Rojas WA, Beck ME, Sangwan VK, Guo S, Hersam MC. Ohmic-Contact-Gated Carbon Nanotube Transistors for High-Performance Analog Amplifiers. ADVANCED MATERIALS (DEERFIELD BEACH, FLA.) 2021; 33:e2100994. [PMID: 34270835 DOI: 10.1002/adma.202100994] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2021] [Revised: 04/14/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The growing demand for ubiquitous data collection has driven the development of sensing technologies with local data processing. As a result, solution-processed semiconductors are widely employed due to their compatibility with low-cost additive manufacturing on a wide range of substrates. However, to fully realize their potential in sensing applications, high-performance scalable analog amplifiers must be realized. Here, ohmic-contact-gated transistors (OCGTs) based on solution-processed semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes are introduced to address this unmet need. This new device concept enables output current saturation in the short-channel limit without compromising output current drive. The resulting OCGTs are used in common-source amplifiers to achieve the highest width-normalized output current (≈30 µA µm-1 ) and length-scaled signal gain (≈230 µm-1 ) to date for solution-processed semiconductors. The utility of these amplifiers for emerging sensing technologies is demonstrated by the amplification of complex millivolt-scale analog biological signals including the outputs of electromyography, photoplethysmogram, and accelerometer sensors. Since the OCGT design is compatible with other solution-processed semiconducting materials, this work establishes a general route to high-performance, solution-processed analog electronics.
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Affiliation(s)
- William A Gaviria Rojas
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
| | - Megan E Beck
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
| | - Vinod K Sangwan
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
| | - Silu Guo
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
| | - Mark C Hersam
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
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Gaviria Rojas WA, Hersam MC. Chirality-Enriched Carbon Nanotubes for Next-Generation Computing. ADVANCED MATERIALS (DEERFIELD BEACH, FLA.) 2020; 32:e1905654. [PMID: 32255238 DOI: 10.1002/adma.201905654] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2019] [Revised: 11/10/2019] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
For the past half century, silicon has served as the primary material platform for integrated circuit technology. However, the recent proliferation of nontraditional electronics, such as wearables, embedded systems, and low-power portable devices, has led to increasingly complex mechanical and electrical performance requirements. Among emerging electronic materials, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are promising candidates for next-generation computing as a result of their superlative electrical, optical, and mechanical properties. Moreover, their chirality-dependent properties enable a wide range of emerging electronic applications including sub-10 nm complementary field-effect transistors, optoelectronic integrated circuits, and enantiomer-recognition sensors. Here, recent progress in SWCNT-based computing devices is reviewed, with an emphasis on the relationship between chirality enrichment and electronic functionality. In particular, after highlighting chirality-dependent SWCNT properties and chirality enrichment methods, the range of computing applications that have been demonstrated using chirality-enriched SWCNTs are summarized. By identifying remaining challenges and opportunities, this work provides a roadmap for next-generation SWCNT-based computing.
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Affiliation(s)
- William A Gaviria Rojas
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
| | - Mark C Hersam
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
- Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
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Tao R, Fang Z, Zhang J, Ning H, Chen J, Yang C, Zhou Y, Yao R, Song Y, Peng J. Capillary force induced air film for self-aligned short channel: pushing the limits of inkjet printing. SOFT MATTER 2018; 14:9402-9410. [PMID: 30421779 DOI: 10.1039/c8sm01984c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Ultrashort channels of electrodes are essential for the construction of advanced functional devices with high-level integration and high operation speed. However, the channel length of fabricated electrodes is limited to 20 μm in inkjet printing. Although several methods have been previously proposed to obtain short channels, they require extra processing steps. In this paper, channel self-aligning phenomenon was observed in directly patterned electrodes on unmodified substrate by inkjet printing, when using an interspace defects growing method. Further exploring the underlying mechanism reveals that the capillary force induced air film prevents droplets coalescence, even on a substrate with no temperature differences. The wetting region, which is generated by the receding droplets impingement, will draw droplets closer together at a larger drop space, thus demanding smaller air pressure for coalescence inhibition and contributing to the self-aligning phenomenon of micro-sized droplets released by inkjet printing. Accordingly, an ultrashort channel of 2.38 μm is obtained with relatively smooth boundaries, when electrodes are printed on a slightly heated substrate, which reduces the air pressure between two neighboring droplets. This work will provide a significant reference for future high resolution applications of inkjet printing technology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruiqiang Tao
- Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials & Devices, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials & Devices, South China University of Technology, P. R. China.
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Li Q, Li S, Yang D, Su W, Wang Y, Zhou W, Liu H, Xie S. Designing hybrid gate dielectric for fully printing high-performance carbon nanotube thin film transistors. NANOTECHNOLOGY 2017; 28:435203. [PMID: 28832342 DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/aa87fa] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
The electrical characteristics of carbon nanotube (CNT) thin-film transistors (TFTs) strongly depend on the properties of the gate dielectric that is in direct contact with the semiconducting CNT channel materials. Here, we systematically investigated the dielectric effects on the electrical characteristics of fully printed semiconducting CNT-TFTs by introducing the organic dielectrics of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) to modify SiO2 dielectric. The results showed that the organic-modified SiO2 dielectric formed a favorable interface for the efficient charge transport in s-SWCNT-TFTs. Compared to single-layer SiO2 dielectric, the use of organic-inorganic hybrid bilayer dielectrics dramatically improved the performances of SWCNT-TFTs such as mobility, threshold voltage, hysteresis and on/off ratio due to the suppress of charge scattering, gate leakage current and charge trapping. The transport mechanism is related that the dielectric with few charge trapping provided efficient percolation pathways for charge carriers, while reduced the charge scattering. High density of charge traps which could directly act as physical transport barriers and significantly restrict the charge carrier transport and, thus, result in decreased mobile carriers and low device performance. Moreover, the gate leakage phenomenon is caused by conduction through charge traps. So, as a component of TFTs, the gate dielectric is of crucial importance to the manufacture of high quality TFTs from the aspects of affecting the gate leakage current and device operation voltage, as well as the charge carrier transport. Interestingly, the OTS-modified SiO2 allows to directly print horizontally aligned CNT film, and the corresponding devices exhibited a higher mobility than that of the devices with the hybrid PMMA/SiO2 dielectric although the thickness of OTS layer is only ∼2.5 nm. Our present result may provide key guidance for the further development of printed nanomaterial electronics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qian Li
- Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China. Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials and Structure Research, Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China
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Inkjet Printing of High Performance Transistors with Micron Order Chemically Set Gaps. Sci Rep 2017; 7:1202. [PMID: 28446781 PMCID: PMC5430662 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-01391-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2016] [Accepted: 03/27/2017] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
This paper reports a 100% inkjet printed transistor with a short channel of approximately 1 µm with an operating speed up to 18.21 GHz. Printed electronics are a burgeoning area in electronics development, but are often stymied by the large minimum feature size. To combat this, techniques were developed to allow for the printings of much shorter transistor channels. The small gap size is achieved through the use of silver inks with different chemical properties to prevent mixing. The combination of the short channel and semiconducting carbon nanotubes (CNT) allows for an exceptional experimentally measured on/off ratio of 106. This all inkjet printed transistor allows for the fabrication of devices using roll-to-roll methodologies with no additional overhead compared to current state of the art production methods.
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Milroy CA, Jang S, Fujimori T, Dodabalapur A, Manthiram A. Inkjet-Printed Lithium-Sulfur Microcathodes for All-Printed, Integrated Nanomanufacturing. SMALL (WEINHEIM AN DER BERGSTRASSE, GERMANY) 2017; 13:1603786. [PMID: 28075054 DOI: 10.1002/smll.201603786] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2016] [Revised: 12/04/2016] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
Improved thin-film microbatteries are needed to provide appropriate energy-storage options to power the multitude of devices that will bring the proposed "Internet of Things" network to fruition (e.g., active radio-frequency identification tags and microcontrollers for wearable and implantable devices). Although impressive efforts have been made to improve the energy density of 3D microbatteries, they have all used low energy-density lithium-ion chemistries, which present a fundamental barrier to miniaturization. In addition, they require complicated microfabrication processes that hinder cost-competitiveness. Here, inkjet-printed lithium-sulfur (Li-S) cathodes for integrated nanomanufacturing are reported. Single-wall carbon nanotubes infused with electronically conductive straight-chain sulfur (S@SWNT) are adopted as an integrated current-collector/active-material composite, and inkjet printing as a top-down approach to achieve thin-film shape control over printed electrode dimensions is used. The novel Li-S cathodes may be directly printed on traditional microelectronic semicoductor substrates (e.g., SiO2 ) or on flexible aluminum foil. Profilometry indicates that these microelectrodes are less than 10 µm thick, while cyclic voltammetry analyses show that the S@SWNT possesses pseudocapacitive characteristics and corroborates a previous study suggesting the S@SWNT discharge via a purely solid-state mechanism. The printed electrodes produce ≈800 mAh g-1 S initially and ≈700 mAh g-1 after 100 charge/discharge cycles at C/2 rate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Craig A Milroy
- McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA
| | - Seonpil Jang
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA
| | - Toshihiko Fujimori
- Center for Energy and Environmental Science, Shinshu University, 4-17-1 Wakasato, Nagano-city 380-8553, Japan JST PRESTO 4-1-8 Honcho, Kawaguchi, Saitama, 332-0012, Japan
| | - Ananth Dodabalapur
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA
| | - Arumugam Manthiram
- McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA
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