High Ampacity On-Chip Wires Implemented by Aligned Carbon Nanotube-Cu Composite
Xiaojia Luo,
Xiao Liang,
Yang Wei,
Ligan Hou,
Ru Li,
Dandan Liu,
Mo Li,
Shuyu Zhou
Affiliations
Xiaojia Luo
Microsystem & Terahertz Research Center, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Chengdu 610200, China
Xiao Liang
Information Materials and Device Applications Key Laboratory of Sichuan Provincial Universities, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu 610225, China
Yang Wei
State Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Physics, Department of Physics and Tsinghua-Foxconn Nanotechnology Research Center, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Ligan Hou
Advanced Materials Division, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215123, China
Ru Li
Microsystem & Terahertz Research Center, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Chengdu 610200, China
Dandan Liu
Advanced Materials Division, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215123, China
Mo Li
School of Electronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China
Shuyu Zhou
Key Laboratory for Quantum Optics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
With the size of electronic devices shrinking to the nanometer scale, it is of great importance to develope new wire materials with higher current carrying capacity than traditional materials such as gold (Au) and copper (Cu). This is urgently needed for more efficient, compact and functional integrated chips and microsystems. To meet the needs of an atom chip, here we report a new solution by introducing super-aligned carbon nanotubes (SACNTs) into Cu thin films. The microwires exhibit an ultra-high current carrying capacity beyond the limit of the traditional Cu wires, reaching (1.7~2.6) × 107 A·cm−2. The first-principles calculation is used to obtain the band structural characteristics of the CNT–Cu composite material, and the principle of its I–V characteristic curve is analyzed. Driven by the bias voltage, a large number of carriers are injected into the CNT layer from Cu by the strong tunneling effect. Moreover, a variety of microwires can be designed and fabricated on demand for high compatibility with conventional microelectronics technology. The composite structures have great potential in high-power electronic devices, high-performance on-chip interconnecting, as well as other applications that have long-term high-current demands, in addition to atom chips.
