Tim,
there are several groups that work on just what you described. There is
Craighead group at Cornell U (http://www.hgc.cornell.edu/index.html) (I am a
former member of that group, now at Bell Labs), also Clark Nguyen's group at
the U of Michigan (http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~ctnguyen/), Roukes's group at
CalTech (http://www.cmp.caltech.edu/~roukes/). The devices they make are
indeed sub-micron. For example, Cornell group made wires down to 50 nm in
width, with resonating frequencies up to 400 MHz. Nguyen's group makes
electric circuits out of small resonators. As for the Q factor, you have
less air resistance, but the dominance of surface (and surface defects)
actually creates more dissipation, so higher frequency oscillators tend to
have lower Q-factors.
So when you move from MEMS to NEMS, you do get higher frequencies, higher
sensitivities, less power. But they are also more difficult to manufacture
(need E-beam litho), have lower Q, more difficult to couple to.
Anatoli.
--------------------------------------
Anatoli Olkhovets
Member of Technical Staff
Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies
600 Mountain Avenue
Murray Hill, NJ 07974
Tel (908) 582-3999 Fax (908) 582-6904
Email: [email protected]
> Deal all,
>
> Moving from MEMs to NEMs (from Micro to Nano, or at least sub 100
> micron) it
> would seem that moving to smaller sizes would result more sensitivity for
> sensors, higher frequency operation for oscillators, less power
> dissipation,
> less dissipative effects (higher Q factor). I am aware that there is some
> activity on developing high frequency mechanical oscillators, with strong
> applications in communication technology, but could anyone point me in the
> direction of who is doing the work?
>
> Any general comments on moving from MEMs to NEMS would also be
> appreciated.
>
> Regards
>
> Tim
>
>
>
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