Carbon-based Nano Electro-Mechanical Systems

Abeer Abdullah Al Anazi

Abstract

Nano Electro-Mechanical Systems (NEMS) integrate critical structural electrical and mechanical elements at or below 100 nm. This is miniaturization of the Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), where the critical structural elements are on the micrometer length scale. Compared to MEMS, NEMS have smaller mass and higher surface area to volume ratio, which is advantageous for applications in manufacturing high frequency resonators and ultrasensitive sensors. Due to the promising potential applications of the emerging NEMS that is expected to have a major impact on our lives, research on NEMS reliability has been of crucial importance on the last decade. Aiming to provide an intuition and insight for researchers who are interested in reliability studies of NEMS, an extensive collection of researches were selected and integrated into this paper to cover the reliability issues of NEMS in different phases of their life cycles including design, manufacturing, logistics, and operation. The paper discusses failure causes on the nano-scales due mechanical, electrical, chemical, thermal factors, or combinations of them, which can occur during manufacturing and post-manufacturing phases. It also reviews common failure modes and mechanisms, the reliability aspects of design and manufacturing, as well as reliability evaluation and testing techniques for NEMS..