Abstract
Today’s electronics cannot perform in harsh environments (e.g., elevated temperatures and ionizing radiation environments) found in many engineering applications. Based on the coupling between near-field thermal radiation and MEMS thermal actuation, we presented the design and modeling of NanoThermoMechanical AND, OR, and NOT logic gates as an alternative, and showed their ability to be combined into a full thermal adder to perform complex operations. In this work, we introduce the fabrication and characterization of the first ever documented Thermal AND and OR logic gates. The results show thermal logic operations can be achieved successfully through demonstrated and easy-to-manufacture NanoThermoMechanical logic gates.
Highlights
Today’s electronics have limited performance and reliability in harsh environments found in many engineering applications such as space exploration (e.g., Venus) and geothermal energy exploitation deep beneath the earth; developing alternative computing technologies is necessary
We built and simulated a thermal calculator based on clustered NanoThermoMechanical logic gates that could perform similar operations as their electronic counterparts
We presented the design and modeling of the NanoThermoMechanical AND, OR, and NOT logic gates, achieved through the coupling between near-field thermal radiation (NFTR) and MEMS thermal actuation[22]
Summary
Based on the concept of coupling NFTR and thermal actuation of a chevron beam actuator, thermal AND and OR gates are constructed using a combination of two thermal diodes and a fixed-value conduction thermal resistance (i.e., solid beams with tailored thermal conductance)[22]. The terminal surface is displaced downwards with a certain expansion rate α due to the thermal expansion of the chevron beams. Further heating to a certain designed temperature, the chevron comes in contact with the spring-loaded structure which reduces the expansion rate of the terminal surface to β (β < α) proportional to the spring constant and effectively achieving the desired reducing mechanism. Further heating to a certain designed temperature causes the two chevrons to interlock and for the terminal surface to expand at a higher rate β, (β > α), effectively achieving the desired amplification mechanism. We designed three photolithography masks: platinum microheaters, silicon front side microstructures, and silicon backside etching These masks were employed through the microfabrication process flow adopted to fabricate the designed thermal gates.
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