• 文献标题:   Suspended graphene variable capacitor
  • 文献类型:   Article
  • 作  者:   ABDELGHANY M, MAHVASH F, MUKHOPADHYAY M, FAVRON A, MARTEL R, SIAJ M, SZKOPEK T
  • 作者关键词:   graphene, nanoelectromechanical system, nems, variable capacitor
  • 出版物名称:   2D MATERIALS
  • ISSN:   2053-1583
  • 通讯作者地址:   McGill Univ
  • 被引频次:   3
  • DOI:   10.1088/2053-1583/3/4/041005
  • 出版年:   2016

▎ 摘  要

Electromechanical variable capacitors, or varactors, find a wide range of applications including sensing applications and the tuning of electrical circuit resonance. We demonstrate a nano-electromechanical graphene varactor, a variable capacitor wherein the capacitance is tuned by voltage controlled deflection of a dense array of suspended graphene membranes. The low flexural rigidity of graphene monolayers is exploited to achieve low actuation voltage and high tunable capacitance density in an ultra-thin structure. Large arrays comprising thousands of suspensions were fabricated to give a tunable capacitance of over 10 pF mm(-2). This capacitance density suggests that graphene offers a potential solution to the challenge of reducing the size of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). A capacitance tuning of 55% was achieved with a 10 V actuating voltage, exceeding the 50% tuning limit of Hookean parallel plate pull-in without the use of complex mechanical schemes that occupy substrate area. Capacitor behavior was investigated experimentally, and described by a simple theoretical model. Mechanical properties of the graphene membranes were measured independently using atomic force microscopy. We present a comparison of state-of-the-art MEMS and graphene varactors. The quality factor of graphene varactors is limited by graphene sheet resistance, pull-in voltage can be improved with more aggressive scaling, while the power handling and cycling stability of graphene varactors remains unknown.