Integration of Gold Nanoparticle–Carbon Nanotube Composite for Enhanced Contact Lifetime of Microelectromechanical Switches with Very Low Contact Resistance

Abstract

Electrical circuits require ideal switches with low power consumption for future electronic applications. However, transistors, the most developed electrical switches available currently, have certain fundamental limitations such as increased leakage current and limited subthreshold swing. To overcome these limitations, micromechanical switches have been extensively studied; however, it is challenging to develop micromechanical switches with high endurance and low contact resistance. This study demonstrates highly reliable microelectromechanical switches using nanocomposites. Nanocomposites consisting of gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are coated on contact electrodes as contact surfaces through a scalable and solution-based fabrication process. While deformable CNTs in the nanocomposite increase the effective contact area under mechanical loads, highly conductive Au NPs provide current paths with low contact resistance between CNTs. Given these advantages, the switches exhibit robust switching operations over 5 × 106 cycles under hot-switching conditions in air. The switches also show low contact resistance without subthreshold region, an extremely small leakage current, and a high on/off ratio.

Sub-10 fJ/bit radiation-hard nanoelectromechanical non-volatile memory

“…Therefore, further research is needed to introduce the superb contact materials that have already been proven to improve the reliability of micro-contact switches. For example, introducing a Ru 47 , Pt 48 , graphene 49 , CNT 50 , and alloys 51 as contact materials at the interface can improve mechanical wear and material transfer. Also, an ultra-thin SiO 2 layer 52 (~8 nm) as the contact materials can help to alleviate the electrical arcing or excessive joule heating at the contacting surfaces.…”