Title: Applications of Graphene-based Nano Electro Mechanical Systems
Description: This thesis describes studies of a two-dimensional (2D), hexagonal arrangement of carbon atoms, graphene. Because of graphene’s reduced dimensionality, the 2D material possesses many desirable mechanical and electrical properties compared to its three-dimensional (3D) counterpart, graphite. In fact, its mechanical strength and electrical mobility are one of the strongest and fastest in the world, prompting much excitements from science and engineering communities alike ever since its first experimental demonstration in 2004. The first part of this thesis deals with graphene in material level. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to graphene. Chapter 2 describes chemical vapor deposition (CVD) synthesis of graphene and various transfer techniques. Chapter 3 describes characterization of graphene using optical inspection, oxidation test, Raman spectroscopy, and electrical transport. The second part of this thesis concerns graphene in device level, electro-mechanical implementation in particular.

Chapter 4 gives an introduction to graphene nano-electro- mechanical systems (GNEMS), where the material’s mechanical and electrical prowess can best be combined, and describes fabrication process as well as transduction mechanism. Chapter 5 shows how GNEMS can be used to build a pressure sensor or an accelerometer. Chapter 6 is a study of the graphene resonators for signal processing such as in RF filters or oscillators. Chapter 7 describes the graphene - silicon nitride heterostructure resonators. The third part of this thesis considers the integration of GNEMS at a system level. Chapter 8 depicts integration of graphene resonators onto a taped-out CMOS die using post-processing. This work, in conjunction with numerous other work done by fellow researchers in the field, tries to provide an overview - from the material synthesis to device fabrication and characterization, and further to system level integration - in utilizing graphene, and graphene NEMS in particular, for sensing and signal processing applications.