Selective carbon nanotube growth on silicon tips with the soft electrostatic force bonding and catalyst transfer concepts

To integrate a single carbon nanotube (CNT) onto a silicon tip, the area of deposited catalyst on the apex of the silicon tip, that influences the quantity of grown CNTs, is critical. Therefore, a method of selective CNT growth with soft electrostatic force bonding and catalyst transfer concepts has been proposed in this paper. In this work, silicon tips were fabricated by bulk micromachining. The tiny catalyst dot on the tip apex was transferred from a nickel-deposited sodium-ion-rich glass wafer by wafer bonding. Finally, CNTs were synthesized on the tip apexes by methane thermal chemical vapour deposition. From the experimental results, the oriented CNTs were observed on roughly 10% of the silicon tips. The yield could be further increased by optimizing the silicon tip structure, contact pressure of soft bonding, and catalyst deposition.