Page 161 - Principles and Applications of NanoMEMS Physics

Chapter 4

NANOMEMS APPLICATIONS: CIRCUITS AND
SYSTEMS

4.1 Introduction

The new “electronics,” enabled by NanoMEMS, will exploit the
coexistence of mesoscopic and mechanical devices operating in the quantum
mechanical regime. Thus, a plethora of phenomena, such as tunneling,
charge quantization, the Casimir effect, motion quantization, entanglement,
etc., are at our disposal to be exploited in creating powerful computing and
communications hardware. This chapter exposes a variety of emerging
devices that embody potential nanoelectromechanical quantum circuits and
systems (NEMX) device-circuit paradigms [22].

4.2 NanoMEMS Systems on Chip

NanoMEMS Systems-on-Chip (SoC) may be predicated upon a multitude
of physical phenomena, e.g., electrical, optical, mechanical, magnetic,
fluidic, quantum effects and mixed domain. Therefore, their universe of
possible implementations and applications is vast and only limited by our
imagination. Possible areas of endeavor, already under research, include:
Nanoelectronics, Nanocomputation, Nanomechanics, Nanoengineering,
Nanobiotechnology, Nanomedicine, Nanochemistry, and RF MEMS. In
principle, then, there is the potential for conceiving new devices that might
spark a revolution as important and wide-ranging as that engendered by the
invention of the transistor and ICs. Ultimately, however, the success of the