May 23, 2001

A company called Field Emission Picture Element Technology, Inc. (FEPET) of Austin, TX, a subsidiary of SI Diamond Technology, has announced the successful construction and operation of a nanotriode-type transistor made from carbon nanotubes. Use of carbon nanotubes has allowed them to create a transistor approximately 500 times smaller than today's silicon transistors. Others have demonstrated transistors operating in a typical solid-state format while using the semiconductor properties exibited by nanotubes, but this new offering utilizes cold electron emission in a vacuum microelectronic structure. The nanotriode type transistor is a vertical device and FEPET believes that this will allow greater density of packaging than the older laterally-structured transistors.

The structure of the nanotriode transistor is based on vertical trenches in silicon. There is a gate structure at the top that is used for modulating the emission current. The gate structure is a high quality dielectric material coated with a metal layer on the top as the gate electrode. Data curves for the nanotriode transistor may be found on their website at http://www.carbontech.net. Click here to go directly there, or access their main page; enter and click on FEPET; then on the "Nanotriode Type Transistor" section. The curves show operations at a gate voltage of 10 V and anode-cathode voltage above 100 V achieving anode currents between 1 and 5 µA.

"Our research and development efforts show that carbon nanotubes are a valid approach to microelectronic miniaturization beyond silicon technology," said Dr. Zvi Yaniv, President and COO; while Marc Eller, Chairman and CEO said, "We hope that the achievements of FEPET and others will spur the study of carbon nanotubes in the field of micro and nanoscale electronics".

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