Functional Nanoscale Electronic Devices Assembled Using Silicon Nanowire Building Blocks

TLDR

Semiconductor nanowires can transport electrons and holes, enabling them to serve as building blocks for nanoscale electronics without complex fabrication, and their facile assembly into key device elements suggests a step toward bottom‑up electronics manufacturing. Boron‑ and phosphorous‑doped silicon nanowires were used as building blocks to assemble three types of semiconductor nanodevices. The assembled devices include passive diodes with rectifying behavior like planar p‑n junctions, bipolar transistors achieving common‑base and emitter gains up to 0.94 and 16, and complementary inverter‑like structures.

Abstract

Because semiconductor nanowires can transport electrons and holes, they could function as building blocks for nanoscale electronics assembled without the need for complex and costly fabrication facilities. Boron- and phosphorous-doped silicon nanowires were used as building blocks to assemble three types of semiconductor nanodevices. Passive diode structures consisting of crossed p- and n-type nanowires exhibit rectifying transport similar to planar p-n junctions. Active bipolar transistors, consisting of heavily and lightly n-doped nanowires crossing a common p-type wire base, exhibit common base and emitter current gains as large as 0.94 and 16, respectively. In addition, p- and n-type nanowires have been used to assemble complementary inverter-like structures. The facile assembly of key electronic device elements from well-defined nanoscale building blocks may represent a step toward a "bottom-up" paradigm for electronics manufacturing.