Characteristic resonance features of SOI-CMOS-compatible silicon nanoelectromechanical doubly-clamped beams up to 330 MHz

This paper reports novel characteristic features of thermally-passivated Si nanoelectromechanical (NEM) beams fabricated via SOI-CMOS compatible processes with top-down hybrid EB/DUV lithography. Considerable difference of the resonance frequencies between the measurement results of the NEM beams with various lengths and the finite element simulation results suggests that effects of the undercut of the beam supports are serious for sub-micron beams. The resonance frequency of 332.57 MHz observed for an 800-nm-long beam is, to our knowledge, the highest ever as the fundamental resonance mode of lithographically-defined Si NEM beams. Clear change of the temperature dependence of the resonance frequencies with the varied beam lengths, observed for the first time, can be explained by considering effects of thermally-induced strain on the longer beams at higher temperatures.