In-Plane Resonant Nano-Electro-Mechanical Sensors: A Comprehensive Study on Design, Fabrication and Characterization Challenges

Abstract

The newly proposed in-plane resonant nano-electro-mechanical (IP R-NEM) sensor, that includes a doubly clamped suspended beam and two side electrodes, achieved a mass sensitivity of less than zepto g/Hz based on analytical and numerical analyses. The high frequency characterization and numerical/analytical studies of the fabricated sensor show that the high vacuum measurement environment will ease the resonance detection using the capacitance detection technique if only the thermoelsatic damping plays a dominant role for the total quality factor of the sensor. The usage of the intrinsic junction-less field-effect-transistor (JL FET) for the resonance detection of the sensor provides a more practical detection method for this sensor. As the second proposed sensor, the introduction of the monolithically integrated in-plane MOSFET with the suspended beam provides another solution for the ease of resonance frequency detection with similar operation to the junction-less transistor in the IP R-NEM sensor. The challenging fabrication technology for the in-plane resonant suspended gate field-effect-transistor (IP RSG-FET) sensor results in some post processing and simulation steps to fully explore and improve the direct current (DC) characteristics of the sensor for the consequent high frequency measurement. The results of modeling and characterization in this research provide a realistic guideline for these potential ultra-sensitive NEM sensors.

Optimisation of quality-factor for in-plane free-free nanoelectromechanical resonators

“…The differences in the derived analytical and numerical values are because of the different assumed values for the silicon properties within the analytical calculations and the software. Our experimental results for the CC beam with similar dimensions in [19], show the Q Total < 1000 in high vacuum and room temperature that is mainly defined because of the anchor damping.…”

MOS Meets NEMS: The Born of Hybrid Devices

“…A few of the nanodevices already fabricated are based on simple structures such as single/double clamp beams, membranes and pillars [20]. Furthermore, one of the main drawbacks from MOS technology, scaling-down feature, has been successfully overcome as exposed elsewhere [21,22].…”

Electrostatically Driven Nanoelectromechanical Logical Gates Utilising Selective Tungsten Chemical Vapor Deposition

“…Although NEM switches cannot completely replace CMOS components in electrical devices due to their operational speed, sizes, and mass production, replacing a part of the integrated system may be a possible approach for lowering the power consumption . NEM switches are of interest as components in many devices, including parallel A/D conversion, transistors, logic gates, and sensing applications . In this work, a NEM switch is studied to enable the production of complex mechanical logic systems.…”