MEMS Seminar: Today (Wed. Oct. 21st), 4-5pm in Allen-101X - Scaling Into the NEMS Era

MEMS Seminar Announcement:
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Today, Wednesday, Oct. 21st, 2009
4:00 – 5:00 pm
Allen-101X (formerly known as CISX-101)

Title:
Scaling Into the NEMS Era

Speaker:
Donovan Lee
Applied Science & Technology Graduate Group
Department of EECS, UC Berkeley

Abstract:
Nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) have been proposed to overcome the challenges of energy efficiency in CMOS electronics. Recent advances in NEMS technology have produced electromechanical relays and memories which exhibit ideal switching behavior. Scaling of these devices will improve speed and layout density while presenting challenges in reliability and design. Our group has been developing the technology behind these ultra-efficient NEMS devices. Nanoscale gaps will allow efficient low-voltage operation. Understanding material strain limitations will increase device reliability. Characterization of surface forces will enable optimized device designs. This talk will review our work on processes, scaling theory and measurement techniques as applied to devices for the computational NEMS era.