Focus Center, New York: Rensselaer - Task Ia

Major Task:
Materials and Processing

Sub-task:
Designing Carbon Nanotubes for Interconnect Applications

Primary Investigator:
Pulickel Ajayan

Research Overview:
The goal is to develop carbon nanotubes as possible elements of interconnect design in future microelectronic technology. The project will involve: a) material development, where growth of both singlewalled and multiwalled nanotubes will be optimized to produce, pure, size selected nanotubes of particular electronic character. Doping of nanotubes (lattice doping as well as interlayer doping) will be tried to increase the conductivity of the system and to tailor the electronic structure. b) Manipulation, Growth and organization of nanotubes to produce separated arrays and interconnected assemblies and testing transport properties. The approach will be based on tailoring nanotube growth through patterned catalyst activation (this will be done in collaborations with Prof. G. Ramanath at RPI and Prof. D. Carroll of Clemson University). c) Transport measurements (resistivity vs. temperature) on individual nanotubes and arrays in collaborations with members of the Focussed Research Center (FRC) and microelectronics center at RPI.

The logic of the proposed research is based on the fact that nanotubes form a class of molecular materials which have dimension that is an order of magnitude smaller than present interconnect lines, could possibly reach lower resistivity (with possibilities of quantum transport) compared to the present copper lines, are structurally robust and should not suffer from electro-migration or diffusion into the underlying dielectric substrates and have superior mechanical and chemical properties compared to existing metals that are used in present-day interconnects. The challenge will be in creating the architecture with these molecular wires that would suffice the interconnections in future complex device layouts.

The development of electronics based on molecular components has been a very attractive direction for future nano-devices. Carbon nanotubes have unique structure and topology and have been shown to exhibit metallic conductivity.

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