ABSTRACT

This chapter presents a brief overview of the emerging nanoscale electromechanical devices based on nanowire structures enabled by state-of-the-art nanofabrication techniques. In particular, the overview focuses on nanowire structures that have controllable mechanical degrees of freedom and can be engineered into functional electromechanical devices. Especially interesting are movable nanowires that can vibrate in their mechanical resonant modes. We discuss here some of the recent important advances in materials, nanofabrication techniques, device technologies, and potential applications of nanowire-based electromechanical systems.

Developments of very high frequency nanomechanical resonators with high quality factors employing various nanowires in metal, semiconductor, and polymer materials represent noticeable research milestones and appear to be promising for various sensing technologies. These advances have been made possible by new approaches in realizing suspended nanowires and by novel means of precision detection of nanowire motions. At the frontiers of the area, we face intriguing challenges such as improving device merit and performance (e.g., scaling up both resonance frequency and quality factor of nanowire resonators), interfacing electronics, and monolithic and large-scale integration. While addressing such challenges, the growing research efforts are expected to generate new enabling technologies for sensing, computing, and other novel information processing functions.