Ultralow-Power and Radiation-Tolerant Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Electronics Utilizing Enhancement-Mode Carbon Nanotube Transistors on Paper Substrates

The development of eco-friendly, ultralow-power and easy-to-process electronics is facing dominant challenges in emerging off-the-grid applications, such as the Internet of Things (IoTs) and extreme environment explorations at the south/north pole, in the deep sea, and in outer space. Eco-friendly, biodegradable, lightweight, and flexible paper-based electronics can provide many new possibilities for next-generation devices and circuits. Here, enhancement-mode (E-mode, remaining off state at zero gate voltages) carbon nanotube (CNT) complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) thin-film transistors (TFTs) are built on paper substrates through a printing-based process. Benefitting from the CMOS circuit style and E-mode transistors, the fabricated CMOS inverters exhibit high voltage gains (more than 11) and noise margins (up to 75% 1/2 V_DD at V_DD of 0.4 V), and rail-to-rail operation down to a V_DD as low as 0.2 V and record low power dissipation as low as 0.0124 pW μm⁻¹. Furthermore, the transistors and integrated circuits (ICs) show an excellent radiation tolerance of a total ionizing dose (TID) exceeding 2 Mrad with a high dose rate of 365 rad s⁻¹. The record power consumption and outstanding radiation tolerance behavior achieved in paper-based and easy-to-process CNT electronics are attractive for emerging energy-saving and environmentally friendly ICs in harsh environment (such as outer-space) applications.