Tunable Micro/Nano-electromechanical Devices for Advanced Switching

微/纳米机电系统（MEMS/NEMS）已经成为一种普遍的技术，支撑着一系列现代应用，包括智能手机，医疗设备和植入物，高分辨率显示器，高灵敏度传感器。特别是，与基于晶体管的开关相比，NEMS触点开关具有低功耗、高效率、非易失性、下扩展性和低成本等优势，有望成为下一代电信和计算应用的数字逻辑构建模块。然而，NEMS开关仍然面临着紧迫的挑战，包括接触可靠性问题，以及制造和操作阶段的粘滞故障。该项目将开发一系列新颖的可调谐微/纳米器件，通过包含液晶等功能材料来增强其性能。这是一个多学科项目，需要基于多物理场有限元建模（FEM）的MEMS/NEMS建模，用于器件实现的洁净室微/纳米制造以及器件测试和分析等。

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.