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

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.