GOALI/Collaborative Research: Manufacturing of Carbon Nanotube Contacts for High-Performance Microelectromechanical Switches

在从开关到电子封装组件的应用中，迫切需要具有非常低电阻的电触点。 典型的金属触点具有粗糙的表面，这限制了接触面积的大小，从而导致高接触电阻。 虽然可以施加更大的力来增加接触面积，但这通常会导致接触失效，从而导致装置失效。 接触的重复循环，例如在微机电开关中，加速了故障。 现有金属对金属接触的不良性能限制了许多电子器件的设计和性能。这个学术与工业联络（GOALI）计划项目的资助机会将调查碳纳米管（CNT）接触的制造，性能和集成，旨在克服当前金属对金属接触的局限性。 这个合作项目将涉及控制碳纳米管生长，微器件制造和小规模机械特性方面的专业知识。它还将涉及与行业的合作，以确保开发的解决方案是可扩展的和商业相关的。 这项工作将具有广泛的技术影响，因为改进的电接触将使高可靠性的微型开关，可以提高性能和降低功耗的一系列电子设备，如移动的电话，和低功耗的可穿戴设备。该项目将涉及纳米制造和材料工程方面的学生培训，以及通过在博物馆和外联活动中演示纳米材料和纳米制造的基本原理来教育K-12学生和公众。 该项目将研究基于垂直排列的碳纳米管的新型电接触材料的制造、集成和表征。 这些纳米结构材料将具有高导电性、高弹性恢复性和低弹性模量，因此允许弹性地适应表面粗糙度，以实现高真实的接触面积和非常低的电阻。 垂直排列的CNT（“森林”）将通过热化学气相沉积（CVD）在微图案化的导电层上生长，然后可选地涂覆二次材料以增强其机械和电气性能。 这些接触材料的特性将使用纳米压痕和电气测量来表征。用于制造接触材料的技术允许在几个数量级上调整接触的性质，因此可以通过控制工艺参数来针对特定应用设计材料。该项目将了解如何通过我们的集成纳米制造方法稳健而精确地控制基于CNT的触点的特性，从而实现制造具有高均匀性和高产量的触点材料的策略。 该项目的主要动机是基于微机电系统（MEMS）技术的开关新材料的需求，并将研究基于低温生长工艺的CNT接触材料集成到硅MEMS中的新策略。

In applications ranging from switches to electronic packaging assemblies, there is a critical need for electrical contacts with very low resistance. Typical metal contacts have rough surfaces that limit the size of the contact area and thus cause high electrical contact resistance. While larger forces can be applied to increase the contact area, this often results in failure of the contact and thus the device. Repeated cycling of the contact, such as in microelectromechanical switches, accelerates the failure. The poor performance of existing metal-to-metal contacts limits the design and performance of a number of electronic devices. This Grant Opportunity for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) Program project will investigate the manufacturing, performance and integration of carbon nanotube (CNT) contacts that aim to overcome the limitations of current metal-to-metal contacts. This collaborative project will involve expertise in controlled carbon nanotube growth, microdevice fabrication, and small-scale mechanical characterization. It will also involve collaboration with industry to ensure the solutions developed are scalable and commercially relevant. This work will have broad technical impact because improved electrical contacts will enable high reliability microscale switches that can improve the performance and reduce the power consumption of a range of electronic devices, such as mobile phones, and low-power wearable devices. The project will involve training of students in nanomanufacturing and materials engineering as well as the education of K-12 students and the public through demonstrations that illustrate basic principles of nanomaterials and nanomanufacturing at museums and outreach events. This project will investigate the manufacturing, integration, and characterization of a new class of electrical contact materials based on vertically aligned CNTs. These nanostructured materials will have high electrical conductivity, high elastic recoverability, and low elastic modulus and thus allow surface roughness to be accommodated elastically in order to achieve high real contact area and very low electrical resistance. Vertically aligned CNTs ('forests') will be grown on micro-patterned conductive layers by thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and then optionally coated by secondary materials to enhance their mechanical and electrical properties. The properties of these contact materials will be characterized using nanoindentation and electrical measurements. The techniques used to manufacture the contact materials allow the properties of the contacts to be tuned over several orders of magnitude so the materials can be engineered for specific applications by controlling process parameters. The project will generate an understanding of how to robustly and precisely control the properties of CNT-based contacts by our integrated nanomanufacturing approach, leading to strategies for manufacturing contact materials with high uniformity and yield. This project is primarily motivated by the need for new materials for switches based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology, and novel strategies for the integration of CNT contact materials into silicon MEMS, based on low temperature growth processes, will be investigated.