Simulation of mechanical properties of the movable nanowire for high speed nonvolatile Nanoelectromechanical (NEMS) memory devices

In this paper, we present the mechanical properties of the movable nanowire (SiO₂)for a proposed high speed nonvolatile Nanoelectromechanical (NEMS) memory devices. The NEMS memory consists of nanowire of SiO₂ clamped at both the ends. By applying voltage across the two electrodes, placed on the either side of the nanowire, buckling of the nanowire occurs which facilitates reading and writing of data. Using 3-D FEM simulation, we have analyzed the maximum stress and maximum displacement of the NEMS memory nanowire with respect to its beam length and applied switching force. For a fixed force of 10 μN and varying the beam length, we got the maximum displacement of 35 μm with a beam length of 20 μm but at the same time stress was also maximum. This large displacement has some serious implications like permanent deformation or breakdown of nanowire. Maximum stress in this case can cause to the breakdown of nanowire. So we do not prefer the maximum stress case in device applications. For the fixed beam length of 1μm and varying the force we got maximum displacement of 0.012 μm with applied force of 25 μN.