Aligned Carbon Nanotube Arrays for Degradation-Resistant, Intimate Contact in Micromechanical Devices

A highly reliable micromechanical contact based on aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays is demonstrated and characterized. The CNT arrays are synthesized directly on three-terminal micro-electromechanical systems, and they are adjusted and simultaneously preloaded during the synthetic process, making intimate micromechanical contacts. It is found that the CNT array-to-array contact improves upon conventional solid-to-solid micromechanical contact.