Ultralow‐Power and Radiation‐Tolerant Complementary Metal‐Oxide‐Semiconductor Electronics Utilizing Enhancement‐Mode Carbon Nanotube Transistors on Paper Substrates

• Published in: Advanced Materials
• Main Authors: Wang, Xin, Zhu, Maguang, Li, Xiaoqian, Qin, Zongze, Lu, Guanghao, Zhao, Jianwen, Zhang, Zhiyong
• Other Authors: National Key Research and Development Program of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Key Technologies Research and Development Program, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2022
• Subjects: North Pole
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adma.202204066; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/adma.202204066; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/adma.202204066

Abstract The development of eco‐friendly, ultralow‐power and easy‐to‐process electronics is facing dominant challenges in emerging off‐the‐grid applications, such as the Internet of Things (IoTs) and extreme environment explorations at the south/north pole, in the deep sea, and in outer space. Eco‐friendly, biodegradable, lightweight, and flexible paper‐based electronics can provide many new possibilities for next‐generation devices and circuits. Here, enhancement‐mode (E‐mode, remaining off state at zero gate voltages) carbon nanotube (CNT) complementary metal‐oxide‐semiconductor (CMOS) thin‐film transistors (TFTs) are built on paper substrates through a printing‐based process. Benefitting from the CMOS circuit style and E‐mode transistors, the fabricated CMOS inverters exhibit high voltage gains (more than 11) and noise margins (up to 75% 1/2 V DD at V DD of 0.4 V), and rail‐to‐rail operation down to a V DD as low as 0.2 V and record low power dissipation as low as 0.0124 pW μm −1 . Furthermore, the transistors and integrated circuits (ICs) show an excellent radiation tolerance of a total ionizing dose (TID) exceeding 2 Mrad with a high dose rate of 365 rad s −1 . The record power consumption and outstanding radiation tolerance behavior achieved in paper‐based and easy‐to‐process CNT electronics are attractive for emerging energy‐saving and environmentally friendly ICs in harsh environment (such as outer‐space) applications.