Tunable Micro/Nano-electromechanical Devices for Advanced Switching

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Micro/Nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) have becoming a pervasive technology underpinning a range of modern applications including smart phones, medical devices & implants, high resolution displays, high sensitivity sensors. In particular, NEMS contact-based switches have demonstrated advantageous performance as compared with transistor based counterpart, including low power consumption, high efficiency, non-volatility, down-scalability and low cost etc., promising an appealing alternative as digital logic building blocks for the next-generation telecommunications and computing applications. However, NEMS switches still face pressing challenges including reliability issues at contact, and stiction failure at manufacturing and operation stages. This project will develop a novel range of tuneable micro/Nano-devices whereby their performance can be enhanced by inclusion of functional materials such as liquid crystals. This is a multidisciplinary project requiring MEMS/NEMS modelling based on multiphysics Finite Element Modelling (FEM), clean room micro/Nano fabrication for device implementation, and device testing and analysis etc.