Large scale and high yield assembly of SWNTs by sacrificial electrode method

This paper presented a novel sacrificial electrode dielectrophoresis method which was able to fabricate a large amount of totally discrete SWNT devices on a single chip synchronously. The discrete devices included a pair of W/Au opposed electrodes and SWNT bundles that were assembled between electrodes by DEP. We used Al lines to connect the two electrodes of all devices to two large Al pads. AC DEP bias were applied on Al pads and the SWNTs were self-assembled at the same time. Then Al was etched so that W/Au electrodes of the same polarity were disconnected and all devices were discrete electrically. The density of SWNT devices was 3 times larger than before. The electrical measurement showed that ohmic contact was formed between the assembled SWNTs and the electrodes. Our sacrificial electrode DEP method made it more flexible to achieve SWNT devices in large scale.