Tang Z., Aluru N.R.
University of Illinois, US
Keywords: continuum, NEMS, pull-in
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have already revolutionized many areas including communications, information technology, medical, mechanical and aerospace technologies. Nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) are MEMS with submicron critical dimensions. NEMS have the potential to fundamentally change the way engineering is currently being done. Even though NEMS can offer radically new alternatives to conventional devices, very few breakthroughs have been reported so far because of complex and expensive trail and error design cycles based purely on experimentation. Computational design tools can play an important role in enabling rapid prototyping of NEMS based new technology. MEMS design tools are not directly applicable for NEMS because NEMS are a 1000 times smaller than MEMS and the use of same physical theories at both length scales is questionable. At nanoscales, the use of continuum theories is questionable and needs to be rigorously validated before they can be used for NEMS design. In this paper, we present several results addressing key issues in the development of computational design tools and design rules for NEMS.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 2, Technical Proceedings of the 2003 Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show, Volume 2
Published: February 23, 2003
Pages: 464 - 467
Industry sector: Sensors, MEMS, Electronics
Topic: MEMS & NEMS Devices, Modeling & Applications
ISBN: 0-9728422-1-7