Silicon carbide for MEMS and NEMS - an overview

Silicon carbide has long been known for its excellent mechanical, electrical and chemical properties, making it a leading material for microfabricated sensors and actuators designed for environments too harsh for Si-based devices. However many of the properties that make SiC attractive for harsh environment applications make it a challenging material to micromachine. Recent advances in deposition and patterning technologies have enabled the fabrication of 3C-SiC micro- and nanoelectromechanical devices with a level of sophistication comparable with Si devices. This paper presents a review of select advances used in the fabrication of SiC MEMS and NEMS structures.