Materials and Processing System for the Economic Production of Single-Wall Carbon Nanotube Thin-Film Transistors

In this Phase I SBIR program, Brewer Science, Inc. (BSI), a leader in innovative microelectronic materials, and our pioneering additive manufacturing partner will develop and demonstrate a cost-effective materials production process for fabricating high-performance thin-film transistors (TFTs) using single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and manufacturing-scalable direct printing technology. In recent years, high-performance SWCNT-based transistors have been successfully produced on a laboratory/research scale. The techniques used in those efforts, however, are not readily adaptable to low-cost commercial-scale manufacturing. For SWCNT devices to become commercially viable, manufacturing techniques must be developed that are low cost, efficient, reliable, and readily adaptable to a wide range of devices. BSI’s proposed effort is based on technologies and processes that have been conceived and partially developed within BSI laboratories with a succinct focus on commercial manufacturability. Our proposed technology is expected to lead to surfactant-free, type-enriched SWCNT solutions that can be directly printed onto flexible or rigid substrates using high-speed and commercially demonstrated aerosol-jet printing technologies to produce high-performance miniaturized electronic devices.