Synthesis of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes and diamond films on Cu substrates for use in high-power electronic devices

Abstract

Currently, most of the vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VA-CNTs) and diamond films are mainly synthesised on flat silicon (Si) substrate. However, to achieve thermal dissipation in high-power electronic devices (HPEDs), the VA-CNTs and diamond films need to be attached to thermal dissipation metal substrates (like Cu, Ag, Al, etc.). In this paper, the fabrication process of the VA-CNTs and diamond films on Cu substrate is reported in detail. The VA-CNTs were synthesised by the thermal chemical vapour deposition (CVD) method. The VA-CNTs on Cu substrates were fabricated by two different methods: directly growing the VA-CNTs using thin catalytic metal layers such as Fe/Al or Cr/Al as a catalyst transferring the VA-CNTs film that was pre-grown on Si substrate to Cu substrate.