Tunneling nanoelectromechanical switches

Nanoelectromechanical (NEM) switches have emerged as a promising competing technology to the conventional metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors. NEM switches exhibit abrupt switching behavior with large on-off current ratios, near-zero off-state leakage currents and sub-threshold slopes below the 60 mV/decade theoretical limit of conventional MOS devices [1]. However, current NEM switches commonly operate at relatively high actuation voltages exceeding 1 V and suffer from failure due to stiction [1]. Reducing the switching gap is a common approach utilized to lower the operating voltage. However, the decrease in the gap size further increases the surface adhesion forces and consequently the possibility of stiction-induced failure.