Fabrication and characterization of a nanoelectromechanical switch with 15-nm-thick suspension air gap

We developed titanium nitride (TiN) based nanoelectromechanical (NEM) switch with the smallest suspension air-gap thickness ever made to date by a "top-down" complementary metal-oxide semiconductor fabrication methods. Cantilever-type NEM switch with a 15-nm-thick suspension air gap and a 35-nm-thick TiN beam was successfully fabricated and characterized. The fabricated cantilever-type NEM switch showed an essentially zero off current, an abrupt switching with less than 3mV/decade, and an on/off current ratio exceeding 10⁵ in air ambient. Also achieved was an endurance of over several hundreds of switching cycles under dc and ac biases in air ambient.