Silicon carbide reinforced vertically aligned carbon nanotube composite for harsh environment mems
Jiarui Mo (TU Delft - Electronic Components, Technology and Materials)
S. Shankar (TU Delft - Support EKL)
Guo Qi Zhang (TU Delft - Electronic Components, Technology and Materials)
S Vollebregt (TU Delft - Electronic Components, Technology and Materials)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
Fabricating high-aspect-ratio (HAR) structures with silicon carbide (SiC) is a challenging task. This paper presents a silicon carbide (SiC) reinforced vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNT) composite as a promising candidate to fabricate HAR MEMS devices for harsh environment applications. The use of a VACNT array allows the fast realization of HAR structures as a template for MEMS fabrication. The template can later be easily filled by amorphous-SiC due to the porous nature of the VACNT forest. The SiC-CNT nanocomposite has electrical properties dominated by VACNT arrays and mechanical stability dominated by the a-SiC. Based on this concept, a thermal actuator is fabricated and proven to function up to 450°C for the first time.