Large-scale metal nanoelectrode arrays based on printed nanowire lithography for nanowire complementary inverters.

Nanowire (NW) complementary inverters based on NW channels and NW electrodes are a promising core logic unit of future subminiature, high density and textile-type configured electronic circuits. However, existing approaches based on short NWs (<150 μm) or non-woven nanofibers cannot provide precisely-coordinated NW inverters due to the difficulty in the position and alignment control of each NW. In particular, the large-scale fabrication of highly-aligned metal nanoelectrode (NE) arrays with low resistivity is a challenging issue. Here, we developed large-scale-aligned AgNE arrays with very low resistivity by using printed NW lithography, and then demonstrated NW complementary inverters by combining with direct-printed organic semiconducting NWs. The width of the AgNEs was controlled from 250 to 1000 nm; their resistivity was 2.6 μΩ cm which is quite comparable with that of Ag films (1.6 μΩ cm). We expect that this approach will facilitate advances in the large-scale fabrication of nanoelectronics which will be compatible with printed electronics.