Nanocrystalline Diamond Thin Films for MEMS and Biomedical Devices

The main aim of the NIRT project is to synthesize, characterize and model the nanocrystalline diamond thin films to utilize its extraordinary properties in various applications such as biomedical devices, MEMS structures and RF-MEMS devices. The research focus is in the following areas: (i) Synthesis and Processing of Nanocrystalline Diamond Films by Microwave Plasma Enhanced CVD: The primary objective of this project is to synthesize and characterize the nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films for building the microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and biomedical devices as they allow designing the complex mechanical elements with micrometer feature sizes by tailored material properties at the nanoscale to achieve the highest performance. The NCD films were deposited by microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (MPECVD) in CH4, Ar, and H2 gas phase system at temperatures ~ 700750°C and pressures in the order of 90120 Torr. Integration of dissimilar materials is required to realize more applications but it involves various challenges due to the fundamental differences in the properties of dissimilar materials. In regard to this, an initial effort has been successfully demonstrated to integrate the metal oxide nanowires of ZnO with NCD films. ZnO possess good electrical, optical and piezoelectric properties, hence the synthesis of new class of composite material if exploited fully might have extraordinary properties. The preliminary studies have shown that the nanowires and the grains of the NCD are well intercalated (see Fig.1. (a),(b),(c)).