@article{398137938b7b44f08a757b8d9e57b694,
title = "Mechanical computing redux: Relays for integrated circuit applications",
abstract = "Power density has grown to be the dominant challenge for continued complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology scaling. Together with recent improvements in microrelay design and process technology, this has led to renewed interest in mechanical computing for ultralow-power integrated circuit (IC) applications. This paper provides a brief history of mechanical computing followed by an overview of the various types of micromechanical switches, with particular emphasis on electromechanical relays since they are among the most promising for IC applications. Relay reliability and process integration challenges are discussed. Demonstrations of functional relay logic circuits are then presented, and relay scaling for improved device density and performance is described. Finally, the energy efficiency benefit of a scaled relay technology versus a CMOS technology with comparable minimum dimensions is assessed.",
keywords = "Complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), computing, energy, low-power computing, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), relays, scaling",
author = "Vincent Pott and Hei Kam and Rhesa Nathanael and Jaeseok Jeon and Elad Alon and {King Liu}, {Tsu Jae}",
note = "Funding Information: Manuscript received February 10, 2010; revised May 14, 2010; accepted July 19, 2010. Date of publication September 16, 2010; date of current version November 19, 2010. This work was supported in part by the Materials, Structures, and Devices Focus Center and the Center for Circuit and System Solutions (two of five research centers funded under the Focus Center Research Program, a Semiconductor Research Corporation program), the DARPA/MTO NEMS program, and the NSF Center of Integrated Nanomechanical Systems. The work of V. Pott was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation under Grant 123059. The work of H. Kam and E. Alon was supported by the Berkeley Wireless Research Center and the National Science Foundation Infrastructure under Grant 0403427. V. Pott was with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-1770 USA. He is now with the Institute of Microelectronics (IME), A*STAR, Singapore 117685 (e-mail: pottv@ime.a-star.edu.sg). H. Kam was with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-1770 USA. He is now with Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, OR 97124 USA. R. Nathanael, J. Jeon, E. Alon, and T.-J. King Liu are with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-1770 USA. Funding Information: Hei Kam (Member, IEEE) received the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and com- puter sciences from the University of California at Berkeley (UCB), Berkeley, in 2004 and 2009, respectively. From December 2009 to June 2010, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UCB. He is the recipient of the Ford Motor Scholarship and the Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) fellowship. He is currently with Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, OR. His research interests are in novel logic devices with subthreshold swing steeper than 60 mV/decade, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), and low-temperature fabrication processes.",
year = "2010",
month = dec,
doi = "10.1109/JPROC.2010.2063411",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "98",
pages = "2076--2094",
journal = "Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers",
issn = "0018-9219",
publisher = "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.",
number = "12",
}