High frequency properties of a CNT-based nanorelay

Abstract

We have theoretically investigated the high frequency properties of a carbon-nanotube-based three-terminal nanoelectromechanical relay. The intrinsic mechanical frequency of the relay is in the GHz regime, and the electromechanical coupling shows a non-linear resonant behaviour in this frequency range. We discuss how these resonances may be detected and show that the resonance frequencies can be tuned by the bias voltage. Also, we show that the influence of external electromagnetic fields on the relay is negligible at all frequencies.

Direct Transmission Detection of Tunable Mechanical Resonance in an Individual Carbon Nanofiber Relay

“…2 Carbon nanotubes are particularly interesting as NEMS components due to their low mobile mass and high Young's modulus, which enables high speed, combined with their high mechanical strength and ability to withstand extreme conditions of temperature and radiation exposure. The predicted possibility of tuning the resonance frequency over a large range by the application of a gate voltage 3 is particularly promising for many applications. Here we present a direct transmission measurement of the resonance frequency of an individual singly clamped carbon nanofiber relay.…”

Nonlinear resonance in a three-terminal carbon nanotube resonator

“…The solution with large deflection is always unstable and leads to snap to contact. If surface forces are taken into account or if the drain electrode is placed outside the reach of tip bistable operation can be obtained as in [12]. From the above relations we find in the linear response regime a power transmission of …”

“…In this paper we investigate more carefully the RF-response of the three-terminal CNT resonator in figure 1 subjected to a harmonic input signal on the gate electrode, going beyond the simple Duffing equation. In contrast to previous publications [12], we base the transduction not on electron tunneling between the tube tip and the drain but on the displacement current generated by the time-varying tube-drain capacitance when the device is connected to lossless transmission lines. This paper consists of several sections.…”

Mechanism of geometric nonlinearity in a nonprismatic and heterogeneous microbeam resonator

“…The high structural quality of those materials combined with the reduced effective mass allows such beams to operate at very high resonance frequencies with extremely high Q factors (i.e., low damping). These beneficial attributes provide the basis for exceptional performance of MEMS applications such as extremely sensitive sensors [1][2][3][4], mechanical energy harvesters [5][6][7], nano/micro-relays [8,9], logic memory and computation [10][11][12], field effect transistors [13], and a high frequency reference in oscillators [14][15][16]. The MEMS devices implemented in these applications were mostly designed to operate in their linear resonant modes with the above-mentioned benefits.…”