A Bistable Silicon Nanofin: An Ideal Device for Nonvolatile Memory Applications

Author

Bo Woon Soon ; Singh, Navab ; Tsai, Jui-che ; Chengkuo Lee

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Nat. Univ. of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

Volume

7

Issue

2

fYear

2013

fDate

41426

Firstpage

24

Lastpage

28

Abstract

We present a silicon nanofin (Si-NF) that can be actuated bidirectionally by electrostatic force between two contact surfaces. The switch is able to maintain its contact leveraging on van der Waals force, which holds the Si-NF to either terminal without an on-hold bias, thus exhibiting bistable hysteresis behavior. The measured pull-in voltage (VPI) and reset voltage (VRESET) are 10 and -12 V, respectively, confirming that the switch can be reset by the opposite electrode. Since the switch toggles between two stable states, it can be an ideal device for nonvolatile memory (NVM) applications.

Keywords

electrodes; elemental semiconductors; nanoelectronics; random-access storage; semiconductor switches; silicon; van der Waals forces; NVM applications; Si; VPI; VRESET; bistable hysteresis behavior; bistable silicon nanofin; contact surfaces; electrostatic force; measured pull-in voltage; nonvolatile memory applications; on-hold bias; opposite electrode; reset voltage; switch toggles; van der Waals force; voltage -12 V; voltage 10 V; Nanomaterials; Nonvolatile memory; Silicon; Surface treatment; Voltage measurement;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nanotechnology Magazine, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1932-4510

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MNANO.2013.2260461

Filename

6525330