Volume 10,Issue 9
Research Progress of Carbon Nanotubes for Radio Frequency Electronics
With the rapid development of 5G/6G wireless communications and high-frequency electronic systems, traditional silicon-based semiconductors are gradually approaching their physical and engineering scaling limits. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), which feature extremely high carrier mobility, high saturation velocity, and ultra-low parasitic parameters, have emerged as the leading candidate material for breaking through the performance bottlenecks of high-frequency RF devices. This paper provides a systematic review of research progress on carbon nanotubes for RF electronics, outlines their structural classifications, and conducts an in-depth comparison of the differences in process controllability and mass production potential among the arc discharge method, laser ablation method, and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. In terms of device development, RF devices based on carbon nanotube arrays have surpassed the terahertz frequency band in MOSFET architectures and demonstrated advantages over traditional compound semiconductors in terms of low power consumption and integration in millimeter-wave amplifiers, mixers, and sub-terahertz flexible RF transistors. This paper focuses on the profound impact of underlying material heterogeneity, such as chiral distribution and residual metallic properties, on the modeling and consistency of microwave circuit parameters. To address current engineering bottlenecks, such as the difficulty in achieving ultra-high-purity, controlled fabrication and significant batch-to-batch variability in industrial production, future efforts should prioritize the development of wafer-level high-purity array fabrication, promote three-dimensional heterogeneous integration and chip-level hotspot cooling co-design, and introduce AI-driven multiscale inverse design to accelerate the industrialization of carbon-based RF electronic systems.
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