Low-power functionality of silicon-nanowire-assembled inverters on bendable plastics

In this paper, we demonstrate the low-power functionality of silicon nanowire (SiNW)-assembled inverters on bendable plastics. Our bendable inverters are capable of operating at supply voltages as low as 0.8 V with a switching (or standby) power consumption of ∼0.2 nW (or ∼6.6 pW). The low-power inverting operation with a voltage gain of ∼18 is attributable to the near-ideal characteristics of the component transistors that have selectively thinned SiNW channels and exhibit low, symmetrical threshold voltages of 0.40 and −0.39 V and low sub-threshold swing values of 81 and 65 mV/dec. Moreover, mechanical bendability reveals that the inverting operation has good, stable fatigue properties.