Electrical and mechanical characterization of lateral NEMS Switches

In this paper we present a study on the electrical and mechanical characterization of NEMS Nano Switches. Pull-in, pull-out voltages are in good agreement with the theoretical values. However some reliability and sticking problems are identified. To investigate furthermore the mechanical properties of the nanoswitch (NS) beam, we have developed a dedicated AFM methodology to extract the Young's modulus. A further improvement of the design is then realized based on the results of this study.