A Bistable Electrostatic Silicon Nanofin Relay for Nonvolatile Memory Application

Author

Bowoon Soon ; Ng, Eldwin Jiaqiang ; Singh, Navab ; Tsai, Julius Minglin ; You Qian ; Chengkuo Le

Author_Institution

Inst. of Microelectron., Agency for Sci., Technol. & Res., Singapore, Singapore

Volume

22

Issue

5

fYear

2013

fDate

Oct. 2013

Firstpage

1004

Lastpage

1006

Abstract

We present a nanoelectromechanical (NEM) relay that is capable of demonstrating two stable states without on-hold power due to the influence of van der Waals force. This is realized by leveraging a silicon nanofin (SiNF) as a relay that can switch between two lateral terminals. The smallest dimension of the SiNF is 80-nm width by 2- μm length. The SiNF is able to maintain its geometrical position even after the bias voltage is turned off. Bistable hysteresis behavior with pull-in voltage (V_PI) and reset voltage (V_RESET) as low as 8.4 and 10.1 V is measured. The nanoscale footprint of this device shows great potential for high-density nonvolatile memory applications.

Keywords

electrostatic devices; elemental semiconductors; nanoelectromechanical devices; nanofabrication; nanostructured materials; random-access storage; semiconductor relays; silicon; NEM relay; Si; SiNF; bistable electrostatic silicon nanofin relay; bistable hysteresis behavior; geometrical position; high-density nonvolatile memory application; nanoelectromechanical relay; pull-in voltage; reset voltage; size 2 mum; size 80 nm; van der Waals force; voltage measurement; Bistable; Nanoelectromechanical systems; electrostatic; nonvolatile memory; relay; switch; van der Waals;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microelectromechanical Systems, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1057-7157

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JMEMS.2013.2266859

Filename

6552969