Modeling and simulation of a nanowire-based cantilever structure

Recently there has been a lot of research based on nanoscale structures and their applications but not a significant amount of modeling and simulation methods have been presented to expedite and simplify such work. In this paper we have shown that the commercially available MEMS enabled software tools can be used to model nanoscale structures of the order of hundreds of nanometers and that this kind of modeling can also be used to simulate the application of such structures into devices like sensors.. ZnO nanowires have been modeled as a cantilever structure and their frequency response has been studied. The calculated and the simulated resonance frequencies for the nanowires varying in length from 600 nm to 900 nm had an average difference of 0.5%. Change in frequency response of the cantilever with addition of external mass was also found to be in accordance with the theoretical formula.