Overview of Carbon Nanotubes as off-chip interconnects

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have drawn a lot of attention due to a combination of extraordinary properties and a wide range of potential applications. Due to the large potentials in satisfying future large scale integrated circuit requirements, much effort has been focused on the study of CNTs as on-chip interconnects. Combined with other conventional materials, CNTs are also promising alternatives for off-chip interconnect applications. The area of CNTs as off-chip interconnects has, currently, attracted a large research interest from both academia and industry. This paper presents an overview of the research work performed on CNTs based electronics. This review also covers the recent work performed on the development of CNTs as off-chip interconnects including both the advances in aligned CNTs bundles synthesis as well CNTs transfer technology. In addition, some challenges facing CNTs implementation in electronic industry are also addressed. The present overview is limited to the fundamental characteristics of CNTs as off-chip interconnects.