Thermal Dissipation and Variability in Electrical Breakdown of Carbon Nanotube Devices

We study high-field electrical breakdown and heat dissipation from carbon nanotube (CNT) devices on SiO2 substrates. The thermal "footprint" of a CNT caused by van der Waals interactions with the substrate is revealed through molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Experiments and modeling find the CNT-substrate thermal coupling scales proportionally to CNT diameter and inversely with SiO2 surface roughness (~d/{\Delta}). Comparison of diffuse mismatch modeling (DMM) and data reveals the upper limit of thermal coupling ~0.4 W/K/m per unit length at room temperature, and ~0.7 W/K/m at 600 C for the largest diameter (3-4 nm) CNTs. We also find semiconducting CNTs can break down prematurely, and display more breakdown variability due to dynamic shifts in threshold voltage, which metallic CNTs are immune to; this poses a fundamental challenge for selective electrical breakdowns in CNT electronics.