Fabrication and operation of an electrostatic actuator for controlling nanometer-scale gaps in collapsed cantilever heterostructures

Vertical electrostatic wedge actuators are described that control nanometer-scale gaps between surfaces. Standard parallel-plate electrostatic actuators become difficult to stabilize across extremely small gaps because the nature of the forces and the force laws that describe them often deviate from...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2013-06, Vol.102 (24)
Main Authors: Chan, Wing S., Saarinen, Mika J., Talghader, Joseph J.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Vertical electrostatic wedge actuators are described that control nanometer-scale gaps between surfaces. Standard parallel-plate electrostatic actuators become difficult to stabilize across extremely small gaps because the nature of the forces and the force laws that describe them often deviate from a Coulomb's law dependence. In this work, a nanometer-scale air gap between a collapsed cantilever structure formed by two facing In0.53Ga0.47As surfaces, with areas of tens of microns, was controlled by a wedge electrostatic actuator. Upon actuation, the gap spacing between the surfaces was tuned over a maximum range of 55 nm with an applied voltage of 60 V.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.4812185