Fabrication and Characterization of Carbon Nanotube Channel on the Electrodes for the Development of Resonant Gate Transistor

Background: New application can be obtained by the integration between carbon nanotube technology Nano-Electro-Mechanical system (NEMs) and Micro-Electro-Mechanical system (MEMs). The new application is a transistor, which uses carbon nanotube as the channel between the source and drain, while MEMs resonator bridges are used as suspending gates. Methods: preparation process of the electrodes (source/drain), carbon nanotube growth between electrodes and the characterization of carbon nanotube channel using Raman spectroscopy to study the time and temperature effect on the quality of Carbon Nanotube channel (CNT-channel), field emission scanning electron microscope/Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (FESEM) to study CNT structure. Results: The result shows the increasing of quality with the increase of both temperature and time. Carbon nanotubes exist between electrodes, and the growth direction follow ethanol direction from source to drain. However, the carbon nanotube growth randomly not aligned. The channel between electrodes were well etched, this has been approved by EDX result. Conclusion: The characterization confirmed the CNT presence between source and drain. Increasing the growth temperature from 700 to 725 °C enhanced the quality of growing CNTs, which is clearly shown from Raman information. While, increasing growth time decreased quality, but the effect not that significant. FESEM characterization shows that CNT growth follows the ethanol flow from source to drain randomly, while EDX result shows that the channel between the electrodes was well etched and clear.