Diamond materials for MEMS and NEMS structures and devices

Diamond materials offer great potential for many microelectro-mechanical system (MEMS) and nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS) applications. Amongst the attractive technological properties of diamond materials are the high stiffness, thermal conductivity, optical transparency range, chemical stability and erosion resistance, and dopant controlled variable electrical resistivity. The nucleation and growth by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition of conformal nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films ranging in thickness from 100 nm to 5 microns, and the fabrication of MEMS and NEMS structures integrated with Si based substrates are presented. These nanocrystalline films have been shown to have high optical quality, high thermal conductivity and a Young's modulus nearly that of single crystal diamond. The results of various characterizations of the material quality will be given, along with examples of several MEMS and NEMS structures and devices.