Fabrication and electrical properties of printed three-dimensional integrated carbon nanotube PMOS inverters on flexible substrates

The low resolution of current printing technology (usually 10-100 μm) limits the number of printed thin film transistors (TFTs) per processable area, resulting in the low integration of printed circuits. In this work, we developed a three-dimensional (3D) integration technology to increase the integration of printed TFTs and firstly achieved printed 3D single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) PMOS inverter arrays on the flexible substrates. The flexible 3D PMOS inverter consists of a bottom-gate SWCNT TFT (i.e., a driving TFT) and a top-gate SWCNT TFT (i.e., a load TFT). Printed SWCNT TFTs exhibited good electrical properties with high carrier mobility (up to 9.53 cm2 V-1 s-1), high Ion/Ioff ratio (105-106), low hysteresis, and small subthreshold swing (SS) (70-80 mV dec-1). As-prepared 3D PMOS inverters exhibited rail-to-rail voltage output characteristics, high voltage gain (10) at a low operating voltage (VDD < 1 V), and good mechanical flexibility. Furthermore, the printed 3D PMOS inverters could be utilized to detect ammonia gases, exhibiting satisfactory stability and recovery rate. It is crucial for realizing high-density, multi-functional printed carbon-based electronic devices and circuits for wearable electronics and the Internet of Things (IoT).