Bulk carbon nanotube as thermal sensing and electronic circuit elements

Bulk multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT) were successfully and repeatably manipulated by AC electrophoresis to form resistive elements between Au microelectrodes and were demonstrated to potentially serve as novel temperature sensor and simple electronic circuit elements. We have measured the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of these MWNT bundles and also integrated them, into constant current configuration for dynamic characterizations. The I-V measurements of the resulting devices revealed that their power consumption were in μW range. Besides, the frequency responses of the tested devices were generally over 100 kHz in constant current mode operation. Using the same technique, bulk MWNT was manipulated between three-terminal microelectrodes to form a simple potential dividing device. The tested device was capable of dividing the input potential into 2.7:1 ratio. Our demonstrations showed that carbon nanotube is a promising material for fabricating ultra low power consumption devices for future sensing and electronic applications.