Directing Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene: Fundamentals and Parallel Device Integration Using Dielectrophoresis

Device and sensor miniaturization has enabled extraordinary functionality and sensitivity enhancements over the last decades while considerably reducing fabrication costs and energy consumption. The traditional materials and process technologies used today will, however, ultimately run into fundamental limitations. Combining large-scale directed assembly methods with high-symmetry low-dimensional carbon nanomaterials is expected to contribute toward overcoming shortcomings of traditional process technologies and pave the way for commercially viable device nanofabrication. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate the guided dielectrophoretic integration of individual single-walled carbon nanotube- and graphene-based devices allowing parallel sensor assembly on the example of a piezoresistive pressure sensor. The ultimate goal is to fabricate ultra-small functional devices at high throughput and low costs, which require only minute operation power.