Robust design and experimental demonstrations of carbon nanotube digital circuits

Carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNFETs) are excellent candidates for building highly energy-efficient digital systems. However, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are inherently highly subject to imperfections and variations that pose major obstacles to the design of robust and very-large-scale CNFET digital systems. This paper presents an overview of imperfection-immune design and robust CNT processing techniques that enabled the demonstration of the first programmable microprocessor built using CNTs. We also present an overview of a systematic methodology that selects effective combinations of CNT processing options and CNFET circuit design techniques to overcome CNT variations.