Advanced Materials and Technologies for Micro Nano-Devices, Sensors and Actuators (NATO Science for Peace and Security Series B: Physics and Biophysics)

The main goal of this book is to review recent progress and current status of MEMS/NEMS technologies and devices. Several important areas are discussed: history of research in the field, device physics, examples of sucessful applications, sensors, materials and processing aspects. The authors who have contributed to the book represent a diverse group of leading scientists from academic, industrial and governmental labs worldwide who bring a broad array of backgrounds such as device physics, technologists, electrical and mechanical engineering, surface chemistry and materials science). The contributions to this book are accessible to both expert scientists and engineers who need to keep up with leading edge research, and newcomers to the field who wish to learn more about the exciting basic and applied research issues relevant to micromechanical devices and technologies. A NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) entitled “Advanced Materials and Technologies for Micro/Nano Devices, Sensors and Actuators” was held in St. Petersburg, Russia, from June 29 to July 2, 2009. The main goal of the Workshop was to examine (at a fundamental level) the very complex scientific issues that pertain to the use of micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS and NEMS), devices and technologies in next generation commercial and defen- related applications. Micro- and nano-electromechanical systems represent rather broad and diverse technological areas, such as optical systems (micromirrors, waveguides, optical sensors, integrated subsystems), life sciences and lab equipment (micropumps, membranes, lab-on-chip, membranes, microfluidics), sensors (bio-sensors, chemical sensors, gas-phase sensors, sensors integrated with electronics) and RF applications for signal transmission (variable capacitors, tunable filters and antennas, switches, resonators). From a scientific viewpoint, this is a very multi-disciplinary field, including micro- and nano-mechanics (such as stresses in structural materials), electronic effects (e. g. charge transfer), general electrostatics, materials science, surface chemistry, interface science, (nano)tribology, and optics. It is obvious that in order to overcome the problems surrounding next-generation MEMS/NEMS devices and applications it is necessary to tackle them from different angles: theoreticians need to speak with mechanical engineers, and device engineers and modelers to listen to surface physicists. It was therefore one of the main objectives of the workshop to bring together a multidisciplinary team of distinguished researchers.