Field emission for resonance sensing in MEMS/NEMS

In the past decades, there is a considerable interest in the sensor community to move from micron to nano-devices, typically scaling of resonators such as cantilever beams. The scaled beams give advantages in faster response and higher sensitivity; however the detection of their resonance becomes challenging as dimensions scale down. In our work, we demonstrate the use of field emission characteristics as a detection method for scaled resonators. The advantages of using field emission are several: it is geometrically scalable without loss of signal, it has a high bandwidth and it can be integrated using standard fabrication processes.