MEMS Switches by Carbon Nanotubes with Silicon Carbide Coating

The research of advanced material such as Carbon Nanotubes (CNT) has attracted considerable attention in achieving high efficiency and good performance in the electrical and electronic system during the last few decades. In this research project, the designs and fabrication process for microswitches which are made by carbon nanotubes have been investigated. Much efforts have been done for optimization in growing micrometer length carbon nanotubes, horizontalization of carbon nanotube bundles, and mechanical properties controlled by silicon carbide (SiC) coating. A modeling design is developed to show the feasibility of the electrostatic drive and the electromagnetic drive for the on and off states of the switch. Besides this, the phenomenon that the substrate topology can give a significant influence on carbon nanotube bundles’ alignment direction during its growth by temperature no uniform distribution was observed and proved by the simulation and the measurement. In order to compensate and put right the aligned direction, horizontalization methods supplied by disposing photoresists have been explored and successfully showed the practicability to change the bundles' direction after deposition. Also, optical and electrical characteristics have been done to show the good performance of this device. The future work can relate to optimizing the process parameters to improve the throughput and repeatability. Also, device dimensions can be optimized to get higher electrical performance. An additional test in reliability can also help with checking its robustness under extreme working conditions. More interestingly, substrate topology design can be explored to implement self-controlled carbon nanotube bundles alignment.Electrical Engineerin