Carbon nanotubes could help electronics withstand outer space's harsh conditions

Date:
October 27, 2021
Source:
American Chemical Society
Summary:
Space missions, such as NASA's Orion that will take astronauts
to Mars, are pushing the limits of human exploration. But during
their transit, spacecrafts encounter a continuous stream of
damaging cosmic radiation, which can harm or even destroy onboard
electronics. To extend future missions, researchers show that
transistors and circuits with carbon nanotubes can be configured
to maintain their electrical properties and memory after being
bombarded by high amounts of radiation.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Space missions, such as NASA's Orion that will take astronauts to Mars,
are pushing the limits of human exploration. But during their transit, spacecrafts encounter a continuous stream of damaging cosmic radiation,
which can harm or even destroy onboard electronics. To extend future
missions, researchers reporting in ACS Nano show that transistors and
circuits with carbon nanotubes can be configured to maintain their
electrical properties and memory after being bombarded by high amounts
of radiation.


==========================================================================
The lifetime and distance of deep space missions are currently limited by
the energy efficiency and robustness of the technology driving them. For example, harsh radiation in space can damage electronics and cause data glitches, or even make computers break down completely. One possibility
is to include carbon nanotubes in widely used electronic components,
such as field-effect transistors. These single-atom-thick tubes are
expected to make transistors more energy efficient compared to more run-of-the-mill silicon-based versions.

In principle, the ultra-small size of the nanotubes should also help
reduce the effects that radiation would have when striking memory chips containing these materials. However, the radiation tolerance for carbon nanotube field-effect transistors has not been widely studied. So,
Pritpal Kanhaiya, Max Shulaker and colleagues wanted to see if they
could engineer this type of field-effect transistor to withstand high
levels of radiation, and build memory chips based on these transistors.

To do this, the researchers deposited carbon nanotubes on a silicon
wafer as the semiconducting layer in field-effect transistors. Then,
they tested different transistor configurations with various levels of shielding, consisting of thin layers of hafnium oxide and titanium and
platinum metal, around the semiconducting layer. The team found that
placing shields both above and below the carbon nanotubes protected the transistor's electrical properties against incoming radiation up to 10
Mrad -- a level much higher than most silicon-based radiation-tolerant electronics can handle. When a shield was only placed beneath the carbon nanotubes, they were protected up to 2 Mrad, which is comparable to
commercial silicon-based radiation-tolerant electronics. Finally, to
achieve a balance between fabrication simplicity and radiation robustness,
the team built static random-access memory (SRAM) chips with the bottom
shield version of the field-effect transistors. Just as with experiments performed on the transistors, these memory chips had a similar X-ray
radiation threshold as silicon-based SRAM devices. These results indicate
that carbon nanotube field- effect transistors, especially double-shielded ones, could be a promising addition to next-generation electronics for
space exploration, the researchers say.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by American_Chemical_Society. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Pritpal S. Kanhaiya, Andrew Yu, Richard Netzer, William Kemp, Derek
Doyle, Max M. Shulaker. Carbon Nanotubes for Radiation-Tolerant
Electronics. ACS Nano, 2021; DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.1c04194 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211027085415.htm

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