Quality factor enhancement on nanomechanical resonators utilizing stiction phenomena.

A simple method of applying tensile stress to nanomechanical resonators was proposed and demonstrated. Two parallel beams were fabricated by wet etching. The beams then stuck to each other due to surface tension caused by the rinse solution and formed a stiction resonator. The stuck beams were stressed because of the deformation caused by the sticking. The stiction resonators were modeled to estimate the sticking length and evaluate the strain of the resonators. The maximum resonator strain obtained in this study was over 0.3%. The quality factors of the stiction resonators were then experimentally evaluated. Results showed that tensile stress had a significant effect on the quality factor enhancement. Using stiction is an effective, useful, and widely applicable method for the tensile stress application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]