Potential of carbon nanotube field effect transistors for analogue circuits

This Letter presents a detailed comparison of carbon nanotube field effect transistors (CNFETs) and metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) with special focus on carbon nanotube FET's potential for implementing analogue circuits in the mm-wave and sub-terahertz range. The latest CNFET lithographic dimensions place it at-par with complementary metal oxide semiconductor in terms of current handling capability, whereas the forecasted improvement in the lithography enables the CNFETs to handle more than twice the current of MOSFETs. The comparison of RF parameters shows superior performance of CNFETs with a g m , f T and f max of 2.7, 2.6 and 4.5 times higher, respectively. MOSFET- and CNFET-based inverter, three-stage ring oscillator and LC oscillator have been designed and compared as well. The CNFET-based inverters are found to be ten times faster, the ring oscillator demonstrates three times higher oscillation frequency and CNFET-based LC oscillator also shows improved performance than its MOSFET counterpart.