Pulse-Activated Piezo-NEMS Shuttle Relay

Abstract

Nanoelectromechanical relays show the potential to beat existing CMOS technology in energy efficient computing, but fail to compete in device density [1]. A novel relay is presented as a highly scalable solution that can be used for non-volatile memory. This relay conducts through an anchorless shuttle, actuated by a combination of piezoelectric and electrostatic force, and held in contact through van der Waals surface adhesion, which makes it intrinsically non-volatile. The relay uses pulsed piezoelectric actuation to enable stable on/off switching and relies on electrostatic actuation as a body bias to reduce actuation voltages to 10s of millivolts. A single degree of freedom model was built to simulate switching events. The pulse-activated piezo shuttle relay is uniquely scalable to a 30 nm cell size and can operate with a switching energy density of 3 fJ/µm¬2. The pulse-activated piezo shuttle relay is a novel NEMS switch design that offers highly scalable geometry, very low energy consumption, tunable actuation voltages, and intrinsic non-volatility.