A local bottom-gate structure with low parasitic capacitance for dielectrophoresis assembly and electrical characterization of suspended nanomaterials

A device including a pair of top electrodes and a local gate in the bottom of an SU-8 trench was fabricated on a glass substrate for dielectrophoresis assembly and electrical characterization of suspended nanomaterials. The three terminals were made of gold electrodes and electrically isolated from each other by an air gap. Compared to the widely used global back-gate silicon device, the parasitic capacitance between the three terminals was significantly reduced and an individual gate was assigned to each device. In addition, the spacing from the bottom-gate to either the source or drain was larger than twice the source-drain gap, which guaranteed that the electric field between the source and drain in the dielectrophoresis assembly was not distinguished by the bottom-gate. To prove the feasibility and versatility of the device, a suspended carbon nanotube and graphene film were assembled by dielectrophoresis and characterized successfully. Accordingly, the proposed device holds promise for the electrical characterization of suspended nanomaterials, especially in a high frequency resonator or transistor configuration. (paper)