Investigation of effect of electrostatic discharge and protection methodologies in nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS)

静电放电(ESD)是影响电子设备和系统的主要可靠性问题。黄昏事件涉及一个带电物体接近另一个物体，发生在商业、工业、医疗和军事环境中。这些放电是非常快、高能量的事件；永久性或硬故障可能导致电子设备，而在数字系统中可能发生颠覆或软故障。新兴的半导体技术提高了对ESD的敏感性；不断扩大的便携式和无线应用市场要求产品具有更好的性能和ESD稳健性。微电子机械系统(MEMS)和纳米电子机械系统(NEMS)固有的ESD敏感性要求研究和开发针对这些结构的保护方法。拟议的研究计划的目标是深入研究纳米结构的ESD事件的基本特征，测量ESD诱导的现象，并开发保护方法和控制过程，以便在设备和系统层面上应用。这项研究所采用的方法将涉及实验方法和模拟事件的模型的数学分析之间的平衡。对ESD事件的高级建模将有助于更好地理解这些现象，并将有助于制定测试方法和标准，以准确地模拟纳米结构中的ESD事件。这些结构中的ESD研究将在MEMS和NEMS中有具体的应用。拟议的ESD事件电荷和电位控制研究的结果将提高消费、工业、医疗和军事应用中使用的电子设备的可靠性。

Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) is a major reliability issue affecting electronic devices and systems. The duscharge event involves the approach of a charged body to another body and occurs in commercial, industrial, medical and military environments. These discharges are very fast, high energy events; permanent or hard failures can result in electronic devices while an upset or soft failure can occur in digital systems. Emerging semiconductor technologies have increased sensitivity to ESD; the ever expanding market for portable and wireless applications demands products with better performance and ESD robustness. The inherent ESD sensitivity of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) require research and development of protection methodologies for these structures. The objectives of the proposed research program relate to the advanced study of the basic characterisitics of the ESD event for nanostructures, the measurement of ESD induced phenomena, and the development of protection methods and control processes for application at the device and system levels. The methodology applied in this research will involve a balance between the experimental approach and mathematical analyses of models which simulate the events. Advanced modelling of the ESD event will contribute to a better understanding of the phenomena and will assist in the development of test methods and standards which accurately simulate the ESD event in nanostructures. The proposed study of ESD in these structures will have specific application in MEMS and NEMS. The results of the proposed research on the investigation of charge and potential control of ESD events will improve the reliability of electronic devices used in consumer, industrial, medical and military applications.