NanoThermoMechanical memory: Near-field heat transfer enabled negative differential thermal resistance and thermal latching

The three-dimensional design and modeling of a near-field NanoThermoMechanical memory is presented. Contrary to electronic memories, a NanoThermoMechanical memory utilizes heat solely to record, store, and recover data. Therefore it is immune to high temperature, intensive electric and magnetic fields, and can be powered with waste heat. Memory function of the NanoThermoMechanical memory is achieved through the existence of a bistable thermal system (i.e., has two stable equilibrium states under the same boundary conditions). The bistable thermal system occurs as a result of conjugate effects between a nonlinear heat input (resulting from negative differential thermal resistance) and heat losses from the NanoThermoMechanical memory device. Negative differential thermal resistance is specifically achieved through coupling between near-field thermal radiation and thermal expansion of the microbeam which the NanoThermoMechanical memory is made out of. Steady state analysis shows two stable states at the low and high temperatures of 1080 K and 1297 K, respectively, corresponding to the two memory states of ZERO and ONE. Complete read write cycle of the NanoThermoMechanical memory is also demonstrated using dynamic analysis. Using standard MEMS microfabrication techniques, the fabrication of the proposed NanoThermoMechanical memory devices can be easily accomplished.