From micro to nano. Problems of modeling of nanoelectromechanical sensors

Abstract

Microelectromechanical (MEMS) sensors are a class of devices that appeared relatively recently, only 50-60 years ago but are widely used in various fields of science and technology due to such characteristics as small sizes, low power consumption, and sufficient accuracy. The next step in miniaturization led to the creation of nanoelectromechanical sensors (NEMS) – measuring instruments that combine electronic and mechanical components that do not exceed 100 nm in size. On the one hand, the development and manufacture of NEMS require a high level of nanotechnologies. On the other hand, the development and manufacture of NEMS lead to the development of new materials with new effects such as surface and quantum effects. At the same time, the range of tasks that can be solved with using NEMS is quite wide – it’s expecting that the mass implementations of NEMS sensors and devices on their base can significantly improve the quality of people’s life, expand their physical capabilities, or compensate disadvantages. For NEMS, as well as for MEMS, such issues as temperature influence, electronic and mechanical noises, the possibility of chaotic outside signal appearance, and so on are relevant. However, because of the small sizes of NEMS, classical approaches may not be fully applicable to solving these issues. Besides that, during the NEMS design, the bunch of specific problems that not relevant for MEMS has appeared. The article provides a brief review of the state of developments in the area of NEMS sensors and problems that significant for NEMS due to their small size.