Near-kT switching-energy lateral NEMS switch

We present a novel architecture of pre-biased N/MEMS switch that has an effective turn-on voltage as low as 300μV (~(kT/q)/87), operating in a regime without electrostatic pull-in. The very sharp sub-threshold slope of current transduction enables deep sub <;; kT/q voltages to be used for switch operation. The switching energy can be exceptionally low, only ~2kT, coming close to the quantum-mechanical switch energy as predicted at kT. Nanomechanical switches in series with transistor technologies (BJTs, CMOS, or MESFETs) can facilitate ultra low-power circuits by eliminating leakage current in transistor circuits. Furthermore, the new switch architecture could facilitate all-mechanical digital logic that might consume even less power than hybrid solutions, and the switches are naturally radiation hard.