---
title: "Nanoelectromechanical systems"
chunk: 4/4
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanoelectromechanical_systems"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:55:36.112304+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

==== Residual stresses ====
To increase reliability of structural integrity, characterization of both material structure and intrinsic stresses at appropriate length scales becomes increasingly pertinent. Effects of residual stresses include but are not limited to fracture, deformation, delamination, and nanosized structural changes, which can result in failure of operation and physical deterioration of the device.
Residual stresses can influence electrical and optical properties. For instance, in various photovoltaic and light emitting diodes (LED) applications, the band gap energy of semiconductors can be tuned accordingly by the effects of residual stress.
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Raman spectroscopy can be used to characterize the distribution of residual stresses on thin films in terms of force volume imaging, topography, and force curves. Furthermore, residual stress can be used to measure nanostructures' melting temperature by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and temperature dependent X-ray Diffraction (XRD).

== Future ==
Key hurdles currently preventing the commercial application of many NEMS devices include low-yields and high device quality variability.  Before NEMS devices can actually be implemented, reasonable integrations of carbon based products must be created.  A recent step in that direction has been demonstrated for diamond, achieving a processing level comparable to that of silicon. The focus is currently shifting from experimental work towards practical applications and device structures that will implement and profit from such novel devices.  The next challenge to overcome involves understanding all of the properties of these carbon-based tools, and using the properties to make efficient and durable NEMS with low failure rates.
Carbon-based materials have served as prime materials for NEMS use, because of their exceptional mechanical and electrical properties.
Recently, nanowires of chalcogenide glasses have shown to be a key platform to design tunable NEMS owing to the availability of active modulation of Young's modulus.
The global market of NEMS is projected to reach $108.88 million by 2022.

== Applications ==
Nanoelectromechanical relay
Nanoelectromechanical systems mass spectrometer

=== Nanoelectromechanical-based cantilevers ===
Researchers from the California Institute of Technology developed a NEM-based cantilever with mechanical resonances up to very high frequencies (VHF). It is incorporation of electronic displacement transducers based on piezoresistive thin metal film facilitates unambiguous and efficient nanodevice readout. The functionalization of the device's surface using a thin polymer coating with high partition coefficient for the targeted species enables NEMS-based cantilevers to provide chemisorption measurements at room temperature with mass resolution at less than one attogram. Further capabilities of NEMS-based cantilevers have been exploited for the applications of sensors, scanning probes, and devices operating at very high frequency (100 MHz).

== References ==