Fabrication and characterization of 100-nm wide silicon nanocantilevers using top-down approach

We present fabrication and characterization of silicon nanocantilevers as nano electromechanical systems (NEMS). We fabricated silicon nanocantilever using silicon on insulator (SOI) wafer by employing stepper UV lithography, which permits resolution of 100 nm. The nanocantilevers were driven by electrostatic force with approaching tungsten tip inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Both lateral and vertical resonance frequencies were visually detected with the SEM and compared with analytical results.