An Electronic Nonvolatile Memory Device Based On Electrostatic Deflection of a Bistable Mechanical Beam

The speed of memory structures is considerably slower than that of logic thus permitting a variety of approaches to achieving and using bistability. We used the bistability of a doubly clamped beam to attain two states that can potentially be used in the implementation of a nonvolatile memory [1]. The device is designed such that a bistable beam acts as the gate of an air gap transistor. In theory, in scaled structures, the threshold voltage shift corresponding to a gate deflection of nanometer dimensions provides sufficient change to allow sensing of the state of the nonvolatile memory cell.