Functional CMOS extension with integrated carbon nano devices

In recent years there has been a steep increase in application and system complexity driven by trends such as Internet of Things (IoT), Industry 4.0 or autonomous driving. Hence, there is a massive demand for cyber-physical systems (CPS) merging sensoric, electronic and communication capabilities. Nanomaterials such as Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) prospect significant added value for such systems, as they inherently feature low energy consumption, superior sensitivity for bio- , optical-, and mechanical sensing and even high amplification linearity in FETs. However, complemented new functionalities still rely on conventional system architectures requiring complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) based application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) with the corresponding front-(FEOL) and back-end-of-line (BEOL). Hence, post-CMOS hetero-integration technologies for upgrading conventional IC’s with nanomaterial based devices is a highly promising path in the context of More than Moore scaling. At the example of condition monitoring, we demonstrate the applicability of CNT strain sensors towards holistic prognostic health monitoring (PHM) approaches of forthcoming electronic systems. Therefore, we develop a CMOS compatible technology platform for integrated CNT field-effect transistors (FETs) serving as the core building block for various system on chip (SOC) applications in analogue high frequency electronics, hardware security, biosensing or condition monitoring.