Nanomechanical switches based on metal-insulator-metal capacitors from a standard complementary-metal-oxide semiconductor technology

We report experimental demonstrations of contact-mode nano-electromechanical switches obtained using a capacitor module based on metal-insulator-metal configuration of a standard commercial complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology. The developed 2 terminals Titanium Nitride switches operate at low voltages (∼10 V) thanks to its small gap (27 nm), showing an excellent ION/IOFF ratio (104) and abrupt behavior (5 mV/decade, one decade of current change is achieved with a 5 mV voltage variation). A switch configuration is also presented where using two electrodes three different contact mode states can be obtained, adding functionalities to mechanical switches configurations.

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