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可靠性的主要问题。放电事件涉及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。这些放电是非常快的高能量事件；永久性或硬故障可能导致电子设备，而数字系统可能发生异常或软故障。新兴的半导体技术提高了对ESD的敏感性；便携式和无线应用市场的不断扩大要求产品具有更好的性能和ESD稳健性。微机电系统（MEMS）和纳米机电系统（NEMS）固有的ESD敏感性要求对这些结构的保护方法进行研究和开发。该研究计划的目标涉及纳米结构ESD事件的基本特征的深入研究，ESD诱导现象的测量，以及在设备和系统层面应用的保护方法和控制过程的发展。在这项研究中应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。ESD事件的高级建模将有助于更好地理解这种现象，并有助于开发准确模拟纳米结构中的ESD事件的测试方法和标准。在这些结构中提出的ESD研究将在MEMS和NEMS中有具体的应用。对静电放电事件的电荷和电位控制的研究结果将提高用于消费、工业、医疗和军事应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.