Gokul Gopalakrishnan
University of Wisconsin, USA
Biography
Silicon nanomembranes are suspended sheets of single-crystal silicon, less than a few hundred nanometers thick, with areas exceeding thousands of square micrometers. Challenges in fabrication arise from strains in the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) starting material, which result in buckling instabilities in thin membranes. I recently developed a simple technique to fabricate flat nanomembranes, with thicknesses as low as 5 nm, using an elastically metastable configuration that is subsequently stabilized. The technique involves embracing, rather than avoiding, the effects of stiction, which are typically considered a detriment to MEMS fabrication. This ability to easily produce flat nanomembranes beyond the buckling threshold expands opportunities to study nanoscale properties free from the influence of a nearby substrate, but also provides a technology platform for smaller and more sensitive MEMS devices, from high-sensitivity, low-footprint pressure sensors to lab-on-a-chip devices for macromolecular separation and sensing.
Abstract
Abstract : Stiction assisted fabrication of single crystal silicon nanomembranes for MEMS applications