High aspect ratio microelectromechanical systems: A versatile approach using carbon nanotubes as a framework

We recently developed a fabrication process for carbon nanotube templated MEMS. The fabrication process involves growing a three dimensional pattern from carbon nanotube forests and filling that forest by chemical vapor infiltration to make a solid structure. This templating process allows us to fab...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hutchison, D.N., Aten, Q., Turner, B., Morrill, N., Howell, L.L., Jensen, B.D., Davis, R.C., Vanfleet, R.R.
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Carbon nanotubes
Chemical processes
chemical vapor infiltration
comb actuators
Fabrication
Filling
high aspect ratio
Microelectromechanical systems
Micromechanical devices
Microstructure
Nanostructured materials
Nanostructures
Silicon
Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes
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Summary:We recently developed a fabrication process for carbon nanotube templated MEMS. The fabrication process involves growing a three dimensional pattern from carbon nanotube forests and filling that forest by chemical vapor infiltration to make a solid structure. This templating process allows us to fabricate extremely high aspect ratio microscale structures from a wide variety of materials. The nanotube structures can be hundreds of microns tall with lateral pattern dimensions down to a few microns. The chemical vapor infiltration has been shown with silicon and silicon nitride but could be extended to many other materials. In this paper, we investigate the microstructure of the filling material and extend the process to the fabrication of comb actuators.
ISSN:2159-547X
DOI:10.1109/SENSOR.2009.5285766