Stressed nanomechanical resonator fabrication utilizing stiction phenomena

A simple fabrication method of stressed nanomechanical resonators utilizing stiction phenomena was proposed. Two parallel beams of 50 μm long, 120 nm wide, and 65 nm thick were fabricated with a wet etching process, and then the beams stuck to each other during drying and formed a stiction resonator. The stiction resonators were under a tensile stress state owing to the deformation of the beams. Vibration characteristics of the stiction resonators were experimentally evaluated with a measurement technique utilizing an electron beam. Higher resonant frequencies and Q-factors were obtained from the stiction resonators of the larger deformation. The evaluation result revealed the presence of the tensile stress in the resonators. The stress state of the stiction resonators was theoretically analyzed. Also, numerical analyses of the stiction resonators with a finite element method were conducted. From the analyses, the tensile stress applied to the stiction resonators was calculated to be up to 300 MPa.