Improvement of the elastic modulus of micromachined structures using carbon nanotubes

摘要

It has been shown that the addition of single walled carbon anotubes (SWNTs) cause an increase in the resonance frequency of micromachined clamped-clamped structures. This is believed to be due to an increase in the effective stiffness of the micromachined structures due to the high Young's modulus of carbon nanotubes. These results were obtained in spite of a relatively poor control over the orientation and aerial density of the deposited SWNTs. Finite element simulations showed an increase in the resonance frequency of up to ~25% for the simulated devices. This increase in the resonance frequency of the bridges can be attributed to the high Young's modulus (~1TPa) of the carbon nanotubes.