On August 24, the world's top academic journal "Nature Electronics" published online the latest achievements made by Chinese scientists in "Irradiation Strengthening Carbon Nanotube Integrated Circuit Research". This result was successfully jointly researched by the Peng Lianmao-Zhang Zhiyong group of Peking University and the Zhao Jianwen group of the Suzhou Institute of Nanotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The joint research group has produced a carbon nanotube field effect transistor and integrated circuit with super radiation resistance, which can meet special application scenarios such as aerospace and nuclear industry in the future. This research result means that my country's carbon-based semiconductor research has successfully broken through the worldwide problem of radiation resistance, laying a solid foundation for the development of radiation-resistant carbon-based chips.
In recent years, the vigorous development of my country's aerospace industry, especially the rise of deep space exploration, has put forward higher requirements for counter-irradiation chips. However, traditional silicon-based semiconductor technology has reached its limit, and future development is facing huge challenges. At present, global scientific researchers generally recognize that carbon-based semiconductor technology is expected to replace silicon-based semiconductor technology and become the mainstream technology in the future.
"Carbon nanotubes (CNT) have excellent electrical properties, quasi-one-dimensional lattice structure, good chemical stability, and high mechanical strength. They are ideal semiconductor channel materials for building new CMOS transistors and integrated circuits, and are expected to promote future electronics. Moreover, because carbon nanotubes have the characteristics of strong carbon-carbon covalent bond, nano-scale cross-sectional area, and low atomic number, they can be used to develop a new generation of super radiation-resistant integrated circuit technology. But how to use carbon nanotubes The tube’s super-anti-irradiation potential is truly realized, but it is one of the major problems facing scientists all over the world."
Professor Zhang Zhiyong, a member of the joint research team and deputy director of the Peking University Carbon-Based Electronics Center, said: “After long-term research, our joint research team has the courage to innovate and challenge, and finally won this tough battle and broke through this global problem. Gao We firmly hold this core technology in the field of science and technology in our own hands."
During the research process of the joint research group, targeted radiation-enhanced design was adopted for all parts of field-effect transistors that are susceptible to radiation damage, and the structure and materials of transistors were systematically designed, and a new type of Radiation-resistant carbon nanotube field effect transistors can resist total dose radiation up to 15 Mrad (Si), and have developed repairable carbon nanotube integrated circuits to provide radiation protection for the future "carbon-based Chinese core" clothes. The special design makes the carbon-based circuit like the T1000 liquid robot in the movie "Terminator", which can completely recover the damage caused by irradiation.
This article was published in the research results of "Nature Electronics". Maguang Zhu, a 2015 doctoral student at the Institute of Frontier Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, and Xiao Hongshan, a 2019 doctoral student at the Department of Electronics, are the co-first authors. Carbon-based Electronics, Department of Electronics, Peking University Professor Zhang Zhiyong, Academician Peng Lianmao and Researcher Zhao Jianwen from the Suzhou Institute of Nanotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, are the co-corresponding authors. Yan Gangping and Jiang Jianhua, postgraduates of the Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, provided simulation results of radiation damage.