Heat dissipation in carbon nanotube transistors

Heat dissipation and its effect on current in carbon nanotube (CNT) Schottky barrier field-effect transistors are studied by solving nonequilibrium Green's function transport equation self-consistently with a heat transport equation. Temperature rise in the semiconducting CNT channel is significantly smaller than its metallic counterpart because (i) the percentage of total power dissipated in the semiconducting CNT channel is smaller, and (ii) the heat dissipation reaches peak values at two ends of the channel. The simulation indicates that in the bias regime of interest to nanoelectronic applications, the effect of heating on the transistor I-V characteristics is small. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.