Large-scale complementary carbon nanotube integrated circuits for harsh radiation environments

Silicon-based integrated circuits operating in radiation environments require additional and complex hardening configurations, leading to performance lags compared to the International Roadmap for Devices and Systems. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), with their ultrastrong chemical bonds and nanoscale dimensions, offer substantial potential for high-performance, radiation-tolerant electronics. However, the challenges associated with radiation-tolerant fabrication processes have hindered the development of macroelectronics using complementary CNT transistors (CNTFETs). In this study, we successfully fabricated radiation-tolerant, highly symmetric, and uniform CMOS building blocks, implementing various logic gates (inverters, NAND, and XOR gates) and ring oscillators (ROs) with 5, 11, and 501 stages. After irradiation up to 6 Mrad(Si), all devices maintained rail-to-rail outputs, and notably, the 501-stage RO, comprising 1004 CNTFETs, showed minimal delay variation (10.3 ± 0.8 ns). This work demonstrates the radiation-tolerant of large-scale CNTFETs, paving the way for their potential replacement of silicon-based FETs in radiation-heavy environments.