In this paper, we report a conduction-type-tunable carbon nanotube field effect transistor (CNT-FET) with double-gate structure (DG CNT-FET). In this study, a specially designed narrow top-gate is created to modulate the energy band in the middle region of a single CNT. In the proposed DG device structure, the top-gate and bottom-gate biases exhibit independent modulation behaviors. Depending on whether a positive or negative bias is applied to the top-gate, the CNT-FET can be operated in either n- or p-type conduction. Energy band diagram conducive to the physical mechanisms of the proposed DG CNT-FET device structure is proposed. Based on the proposed hypothesis, ambipolar CNT-FETs can indeed be converted to n- or p-type-like behaviors. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.