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Concept
Nanoelectromechanical systems
Summary
Nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) are a class of devices integrating electrical and mechanical functionality on the nanoscale. NEMS form the next logical miniaturization step from so-called microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS devices. NEMS typically integrate transistor-like nanoelectronics with mechanical actuators, pumps, or motors, and may thereby form physical, biological, and chemical sensors. The name derives from typical device dimensions in the nanometer range, leading to low mass, high mechanical resonance frequencies, potentially large quantum mechanical effects such as zero point motion, and a high surface-to-volume ratio useful for surface-based sensing mechanisms. Applications include accelerometers and sensors to detect chemical substances in the air.
As noted by Richard Feynman in his famous talk in 1959, "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom," there are many potential applications of machines at smaller and smaller sizes; by building and controlling devices at smaller scales, all technology benefits. The expected benefits include greater efficiencies and reduced size, decreased power consumption and lower costs of production in electromechanical systems.
In 1960, Mohamed M. Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs fabricated the first MOSFET with a gate oxide thickness of 100 nm. In 1962, Atalla and Kahng fabricated a nanolayer-base metal–semiconductor junction (M–S junction) transistor that used gold (Au) thin films with a thickness of 10 nm. In 1987, Bijan Davari led an IBM research team that demonstrated the first MOSFET with a 10 nm oxide thickness. Multi-gate MOSFETs enabled scaling below 20 nm channel length, starting with the FinFET. The FinFET originates from the research of Digh Hisamoto at Hitachi Central Research Laboratory in 1989. At UC Berkeley, a group led by Hisamoto and TSMC's Chenming Hu fabricated FinFET devices down to 17 nm channel length in 1998.
In 2000, the first very-large-scale integration (VLSI) NEMS device was demonstrated by researchers at IBM.
Official source
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