Stochastic Optimal Control to Minimize the Impact of Manufacturing Variations on Nanomechanical Systems

This paper presents a control method intended to suppress the effects of manufacturing variations on nanomechanical systems. Often, the resonance characteristics of nanoscale devices are inconsistent, due to unavoidable variations in the fabrication process. This is important because resonant vibrations enhance the sensitivities of the devices. As such, the sensitivities of these systems can be degraded if the device characteristics are not identified. To address this fundamental problem, this paper presents a multidisciplinary method based on control theory, nanotechnology, and communication technology. A stochastic optimal feedback controller is employed to enhance an average sensitivity by regarding the variations as stochastic parameters. This method is applied to nanoscale receivers that detect transmitted binary data based on binary phase-shift keying in communication systems. The proposed method controls the vibrations of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) that serve as the antennas of the receiver. The proposed method is demonstrated via a numerical simulation using nanoscale receivers with the manufacturing variation. The simulation based on experimental data obtained from CNTs shows that the average performance of the devices is enhanced.