Sub-100 mV Computing With Electro-Mechanical Relays

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

“…The gradual decrease in the output voltage at turnoff is an electrical delay induced by the 1 MΩ external resistor. 40 We also monitored the hysteretic switching characteristics periodically for 5 × 10 6 cycles at the delivering current of 1 uA to verify the contact reliability of the switch with Au-NP−CNT. Figure S11 shows the drain-source current (I DS ) with respect to the gate voltage (V G ) sweep curves at the V DS of 0.5 mV for 5 × 10 6 cycles.…”

“…Recently, many studies have been conducted to develop low-voltage operating switches. Among them, we anticipate that the following three representative strategies achieving the low operational voltage of 1 V or less could be introduced into our switches operating in an out-of-plane direction: (i) reducing the gap of the switch significantly; (ii) introducing other driving methods that could apply a force higher than electrostatic force, such as a phase transition, thermal, or piezoelectric operation; and (iii) adjusting the actuation voltage by operating it as a 4-terminal device with a body electrode. , …”

“…We measured the transient responses at every 5 × 10 5 cycles from the initial contact to 2 × 10 6 cycles, and then at every 1 × 10 6 cycles from 2 × 10 6 cycles to failure. The gradual decrease in the output voltage at turn-off is an electrical delay induced by the 1 MΩ external resistor . We also monitored the hysteretic switching characteristics periodically for 5 × 10 6 cycles at the delivering current of 1 uA to verify the contact reliability of the switch with Au-NP–CNT.…”

“…Among them, we anticipate that the following three representative strategies achieving the low operational voltage of 1 V or less could be introduced into our switches operating in an out-of-plane direction: (i) reducing the gap of the switch significantly; 36 (ii) introducing other driving methods that could apply a force higher than electrostatic force, such as a phase transition, 37 thermal, 38 or piezoelectric operation; 39 and (iii) adjusting the actuation voltage by operating it as a 4-terminal device with a body electrode. 40,41 Moreover, the size of the switch with a length of about 430 μm is significantly large compared with that of the transistor, which aims to reach a footprint of less than 40 nm. 42 To the best of our knowledge, the smallest mechanical switch with the device length of 300 nm has been reported, 43 but it still has a larger size compared to those of transistors.…”

High Performance Seesaw Torsional CMOS-MEMS Relay Using Tungsten VIA Layer

“…It is expected that new micro- and nanoelectromechanical (M/NEM) relays can play an important role as a new device for adding functionality and decreasing the power consumption for the more demanding area of consumable devices (IoT, wearables) [ 1 ]. One of the important things in mechanical relays is the capability of a quasi-ideal switching behavior (with a very abrupt on-off switching, and zero current leakage during the OFF-state) and multi-terminal operation which can serve to save energy, as it has been envisioned in several different digital applications [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. The possibility of using the complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) platform for the monolithic fabrication of such M/NEMS relays in a real combination with classical CMOS devices can open a myriad of new possibilities for decreasing power consumption.…”