NEMS switch with 30 nm thick beam and 20 nm high air gap for high density non-volatile memory applications

As design rule is scaled down in complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) device, the several disadvantages based on electric field effect in CMOS device were emerged such as short channel effect, junction leakage and gate oxide leakage current (J.D. Meindl, 2001). Non-CMOS based device using micro/nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) switch have been proposed as one of the alternatives (R.L. Badzey et al., 2004), (Abele et al., 2006), (W.W. Jang et al., 2007). Devices based on MEMS/NEMS switch show excellent on-off current characteristics due to an almost zero off current and abrupt on-off current transition. Also, they have robustness under harsh environments such as X-ray, radiation, and low/high temperature. In this work, two types of two terminal NEMS switch with the smallest dimensions ever made were proposed and fabricated. Moreover, their electrical characteristics were provided.