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Piezoelectric Aluminum Nitride Nanoelectromechanical Actuators, Nipun Sinha, Graham Wabiszewski, Rashed Mahameed, Valery Felmetsger, Shawn Tanner, Robert Carpick, Gianluca Piazza

Nipun Sinha

This letter reports the implementation of ultrathin (100 nm) aluminum nitride (AlN) piezoelectric layers for the fabrication of vertically deflecting nanoactuators. The films exhibit an average piezoelectric coefficient (d31~−1.9 pC/N), which is comparable to its microscale counterpart. This allows vertical deflections as large as 40 nm from 18 µm long and 350 nm thick multilayer cantilever bimorph beams with 2 V actuation. Furthermore, in-plane stress and stress gradients have been simultaneously controlled. The films exhibit leakage currents lower than 2 nA/cm2 at 1 V, and have an average relative dielectric constant of approximately 9.2 (as in thicker films). These material …