An All-Solution-Based Hybrid CMOS-Like Quantum Dot/Carbon Nanotube Inverter

Abstract

The development of low-cost, flexible electronic devices is subordinated to the advancement in solution-based and low-temperature-processable semiconducting materials, such as colloidal quantum dots (QDs) and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). Here, excellent compatibility of QDs and SWCNTs as a complementary pair of semiconducting materials for fabrication of high-performance complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-like inverters is demonstrated. The n-type field effect transistors (FETs) based on I− capped PbS QDs (Vth = 0.2 V, on/off = 105, SS-th = 114 mV dec−1, µe = 0.22 cm2 V−1 s−1) and the p-type FETs with tailored parameters based on low-density random network of SWCNTs (Vth = −0.2 V, on/off > 105, SS-th = 63 mV dec−1, µh = 0.04 cm2 V−1 s−1) are integrated on the same substrate in order to obtain high-performance hybrid inverters. The inverters operate in the sub-1 V range (0.9 V) and have high gain (76 V/V), large maximum-equal-criteria noise margins (80%), and peak power consumption of 3 nW, in combination with low hysteresis (10 mV).