Nano-switch for study of gold contact behavior

In this paper we present the fabrication and characterization of a new NEMS DC switch as a vehicle to characterize Au-to-Au contacts at nano-scale. The switch consists of a 1050-nm long, 200-nm wide and 50-nm thick cantilever gold beam. The measured on-state resistance values range from 83 ¿ to 640 ¿ and the actuation voltages from 4 V to 22 V. All measurements are conducted at a current of 1 ¿A and the obtained values are in good qualitative agreement with traditional elastic-plastic contact models. The calculated switching time is 55 ns. Characterization of contacts at nano-scale will be critical for the success of NEMS devices used in ultra low-power sensors. To this end, we examine the impact of such a switch as a leakage control mechanism.