Frequency Response of Nanoelectromechanical Cantilevers Operating in Fluid

Nano-electro-mechanical resonators used for sensing, data storage, and nano-fabrication applications are often operated as feed-back control systems. To determine the transfer function of silicon cantilevers with a width of 5.0 mum, a thickness of 800 nm, and lengths of 10, 15, 30, and 45 mum, the damping in air and liquid was simulated numerically using an integrated fluid- structure solver. Bode diagrams and Nyquist plots of the cantilever transfer function indicate that the resonator will behave as a heavily damped system in liquid, and a lightly damped system in air. After experimental validation, this computational method is expected to allow prediction of frequency response prior to fabrication of NEMS resonators.