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Sponsors

DARPA NEMS Program

UC Berkeley BWRC Sponsors

MIT CICS

Focus Center Research Program (C2S2, MSD)

NSF Infrastructure Grant #0403427

People

MIT: Fred Chen, Hossein Fariborzi, Sumit Dutta, Prof. Vladimir Stojanovic

UC-Berkeley: Matthew Spencer, Rhesa Nathanael, Abhinav Gupta, Hei Kam, Vincent Pott, Jaeseok Jeon, Tim Chen, Philip Chen, Eung Seok Park, Dr. Louis Hutin, Prof. Tsu-Jae King Liu, Prof. Elad Alon

UCLA: Chengcheng Wang, Kevin Dwan, Vaibhav Karkare, Prof. Dejan Markovic

This collaborative project aims to develop circuit, CAD, and device design methodologies for designing integrated circuits using nano/micro-electro-mechanical (N/MEM) switches. Figure 1 shows the first revision of the MEM switch and its basic operating principles. Our early work [1] demonstrates the potential energy-efficiency benefits that circuit design using these N/MEM switches could provide in a scaled process while our most recent testchips (one shown in Figure 2) show the feasibility of circuit design using these devices and projects the performance of scaled NEM switch circuits in comparison to CMOS [2-4]. Future work aims to integrate larger systems using these devices as well as implemenation of other circuit functions.

Figure 1. Structure and operation of the MEM switch (SEM included)	Figure 2. MEM-Relay testchip (2010) [3]

References

1. F. Chen, H. Kam, D. Markovic, T.-J. King Liu, V. Stojanovic, and E. Alon, "Integrated Circuit Design with NEM Relays," IEEE/ACM International Conference on Computer-Aided Design, San Jose, CA, November 9-13, 2008. (paper)
2. F. Chen, M. Spencer, R. Nathanael, C. Wang, H. Fariborzi, A. Gupta, H. Kam, V. Pott, J. Jeon, T.-J. King Liu, D. Markovic, V. Stojanovic, and E. Alon, "Demonstration of Integrated Mico-Electro-Mechanical (MEM) Switch Circuits for VLSI Applications", IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference, Feb. 2010. (paper)
3. H. Fariborzi, M. Spencer, V. Karkare, J. Jeon, R. Nathanael, C. Wang, F. Chen, H. Kam, V. Pott, T.-J. King Liu, E. Alon, V. Stojanovic´, D. Markovic´, "Analysis and Demonstration of MEM-Relay Power Gating," Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC), Sept. 2010. (paper)
4. M. Spencer, F. Chen, C. Wang, R. Nathanael, H. Fariborzi, A. Gupta, H. Kam, V. Pott, J. Jeon, T.-J. King Liu, D. Markovic, E. Alon, and V. Stojanovic, "Demonstration of Integrated Micro-Electro-Mechanical Relay Circuits for VLSI Applications," IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Volume 46, Issue 1, Jan. 2011. (paper)
5. H. Kam, T.-J. King Liu, V. Stojanovic, D. Markovic, and E. Alon, "Design, Optimization, and Scaling of MEM Relays for Ultra-Low-Power Digital Logic," IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Volume 58, Issue 1, Jan. 2011. (paper)
6. H. Fariborzi, F. Chen, R. Nathanael, J. Jeon, T.-J. King Liu, and V. Stojanovic, "Design and Demonstration of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Relay Multipliers," IEEE Asian Solid-State Circuits Conference, Nov. 2011. (paper)