| 1. |
- Kulsreshath, Mukesh K., et al.
(författare)
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Digital Nanoelectromechanical Non-Volatile Memory Cell
- 2024
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Ingår i: IEEE Electron Device Letters. - : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). - 0741-3106 .- 1558-0563. ; 45:4, s. 728-731
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Nanoelectromechanical relays are inherently radiation hard and can operate at high temperatures. Thus, they have potential to serve as the building blocks in non-volatile memory that can be used in harsh environments with zero standby power. However, a reprogrammable memory cell built entirely from relays that can be operated with a digital protocol has not yet been demonstrated. Here, we demonstrate a fully mechanical digital non-volatile memory cell built from in-plane silicon nanoelectromechanical relays; a 7-terminal bistable relay utilizes surface adhesion forces to store binary data without consuming any energy, while 3-terminal relays are used for read and write access without the need for CMOS. We have optimized the designs to prevent collapse to the substrate under actuation and recorded voltages of 13, 13.2 and 27V for programming, read and reprogramming operations. This non-volatile memory cell can potentially be used to build embedded memories for edge applications that have stringent temperature, radiation and energy constraints.
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| 2. |
- Li, Yingying, 1994-, et al.
(författare)
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Design and fabrication of a 4-terminal in-plane nanoelectromechanical relay
- 2023
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Ingår i: 2023 22nd International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems, Transducers 2023. - : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. ; , s. 824-826
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present 4-terminal (4-T) silicon (Si) nanoelectronmechanical (NEM) relays fabricated on silicon-oninsulator (SOI) wafers. We demonstrate true 4-T switching behavior with isolated control and signal paths. A pull-in voltage as low as 11.6 V is achieved with the miniaturized design. 4-T NEM relays are a very promising candidate for building ultra-low-power logic circuits since they enable novel circuit architectures to realize logic functions with far fewer devices than CMOS implementations, while also allowing the dynamic power consumption to be reduced by body-biasing.
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| 3. |
- Li, Yingying, 1994-, et al.
(författare)
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Integrated 4-terminal single-contact nanoelectromechanical relays implemented in a silicon-on-insulator foundry process
- 2023
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Ingår i: Nanoscale. - : Royal Society of Chemistry. - 2040-3364 .- 2040-3372.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Integrated nanoelectromechanical (NEM) relays can be used instead of transistors to implement ultra-low power logic circuits, due to their abrupt turn-off characteristics and zero off-state leakage. Further, realizing circuits with 4-terminal (4-T) NEM relays enables significant reduction in circuit device count compared to conventional transistor circuits. For practical 4-T NEM circuits, however, the relays need to be miniaturized and integrated with high-density back-end-of-line (BEOL) interconnects, which is challenging and has not been realized to date. Here, we present electrostatically actuated silicon 4-T NEM relays that are integrated with multi-layer BEOL metal interconnects, implemented using a commercial silicon-on-insulator (SOI) foundry process. We demonstrate 4-T switching and the use of body-biasing to reduce pull-in voltage of a relay with a 300 nm airgap, from 15.8 V to 7.8 V, consistent with predictions of the finite-element model. Our 4-T NEM relay technology enables new possibilities for realizing NEM-based circuits for applications demanding harsh environment computation and zero standby power, in industries such as automotive, Internet-of-Things, and aerospace.
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| 4. |
- Pamunuwa, Dinesh, et al.
(författare)
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Hardware Platform for Edge Computing Based on Nanoelectromechanical Relays
- 2023
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Ingår i: 2023 22nd International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems, Transducers 2023. - : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. ; , s. 537-541
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- NEM relay-based circuits can operate in harsh environmental conditions, high temperatures and high levels of radiation, without consuming energy in standby mode. These attributes make NEM relay technology very attractive for edge computing applications in industrial and manufacturing sectors. Here we describe a complete hardware platform for designing and fabricating densely integrated NEM relay circuits, and discuss the design of several prototypes we are developing to showcase this technology.
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