GOALI/Collaborative Research: Manufacturing of Carbon Nanotube Contacts for High-Performance Microelectromechanical Switches

GOALI/合作研究：用于高性能微机电开关的碳纳米管触点的制造

• 批准号: 1463181
• 负责人: Anastasios John Hart
• 金额: $ 17.5万
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-08-01 至 2018-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1463181&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: GOALI; Collaborative; Research; Manufacturing; Carbon

In applications ranging from switches to electronic packaging assemblies, there is a critical need for electrical contacts with very low resistance. Typical metal contacts have rough surfaces that limit the size of the contact area and thus cause high electrical contact resistance. While larger forces can be applied to increase the contact area, this often results in failure of the contact and thus the device. Repeated cycling of the contact, such as in microelectromechanical switches, accelerates the failure. The poor performance of existing metal-to-metal contacts limits the design and performance of a number of electronic devices. This Grant Opportunity for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) Program project will investigate the manufacturing, performance and integration of carbon nanotube (CNT) contacts that aim to overcome the limitations of current metal-to-metal contacts. This collaborative project will involve expertise in controlled carbon nanotube growth, microdevice fabrication, and small-scale mechanical characterization. It will also involve collaboration with industry to ensure the solutions developed are scalable and commercially relevant. This work will have broad technical impact because improved electrical contacts will enable high reliability microscale switches that can improve the performance and reduce the power consumption of a range of electronic devices, such as mobile phones, and low-power wearable devices. The project will involve training of students in nanomanufacturing and materials engineering as well as the education of K-12 students and the public through demonstrations that illustrate basic principles of nanomaterials and nanomanufacturing at museums and outreach events. This project will investigate the manufacturing, integration, and characterization of a new class of electrical contact materials based on vertically aligned CNTs. These nanostructured materials will have high electrical conductivity, high elastic recoverability, and low elastic modulus and thus allow surface roughness to be accommodated elastically in order to achieve high real contact area and very low electrical resistance. Vertically aligned CNTs ('forests') will be grown on micro-patterned conductive layers by thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and then optionally coated by secondary materials to enhance their mechanical and electrical properties. The properties of these contact materials will be characterized using nanoindentation and electrical measurements. The techniques used to manufacture the contact materials allow the properties of the contacts to be tuned over several orders of magnitude so the materials can be engineered for specific applications by controlling process parameters. The project will generate an understanding of how to robustly and precisely control the properties of CNT-based contacts by our integrated nanomanufacturing approach, leading to strategies for manufacturing contact materials with high uniformity and yield. This project is primarily motivated by the need for new materials for switches based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology, and novel strategies for the integration of CNT contact materials into silicon MEMS, based on low temperature growth processes, will be investigated.

在从开关到电子包装组件的应用中，对电阻非常低的电触点至关重要。 典型的金属接触具有粗糙的表面，可限制接触区域的大小，从而引起高电阻性。 虽然可以应用较大的力来增加接触区域，但这通常会导致接触失败，从而导致设备失败。 接触的重复循环，例如在微电机电开关中，加速了故障。 现有金属之间的性能不佳限制了许多电子设备的设计和性能。这项与行业联络（Goari）计划项目的赠款机会将调查碳纳米管（CNT）联系的制造，性能和整合，旨在克服当前金属之间的局限性。 该协作项目将涉及受控碳纳米管生长，微电位制造和小规模机械表征方面的专业知识。它还将涉及与行业的合作，以确保开发的解决方案可扩展且商业上相关。 这项工作将产生广泛的技术影响，因为改进的电气接触将使高可靠性微观开关能够提高性能并降低一系列电子设备（例如手机）和低功率可穿戴设备的功耗。该项目将涉及通过演示培训纳米制造和材料工程的学生，以及K-12学生和公众的教育，这些演示说明了博物馆和外展活动的纳米材料和纳米制造的基本原理。 该项目将研究基于垂直对齐的CNT的新型电气接触材料的制造，集成和表征。 这些纳米结构的材料将具有高电导率，高弹性可恢复性和低弹性模量，从而使表面粗糙度弹性可容纳，以达到高实际接触面积和非常低的电阻。 垂直排列的CNT（“森林”）将通过热化学蒸气沉积（CVD）在微图案导电层上生长，然后被二级材料涂抹以增强其机械和电气性能。 这些接触材料的特性将使用纳米枢纽和电测量值来表征。用于制造接触材料的技术允许通过几个数量级调整触点的特性，因此可以通过控制过程参数来设计材料，以针对特定应用进行设计。该项目将对如何通过我们的集成纳米制造方法进行稳健和精确控制基于CNT的联系的性质的理解，从而导致具有高均匀性和产量制造接触材料的策略。 该项目主要是由基于微电机电系统（MEMS）技术开关的新材料的需要，以及将CNT接触材料集成到硅MEMS中的新型策略，将研究基于低温生长过程。