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Nanoelectromechanical systems



Part of the article series on
Nanoelectronics

Single-molecule electronics
Molecular electronics
Molecular logic gate
Molecular wires

Solid-state nanoelectronics
Nanocircuitry
Nanowires
Nanolithography
NEMS
Nanoionics

See also
Nanotechnology

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Nanoelectromechanical systems or NEMS are similar to Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) but smaller. They hold promise to improve abilities to measure small displacements and forces at a molecular scale, and are related to nanotechnology and nanomechanics.

There are two approaches most researchers accept as standard paths to NEMS. The top-down approach can be summarized as “a set of tools designed to build a smaller set of tools”. For example, a millimeter sized factory that builds micrometer sized factories which in turn can build nanometer sized devices. The other approach is the bottom-up approach, and can be thought of as putting together single atoms or molecules until a desired level of complexity and functionality has been achieved in a device. Such an approach may utilize molecular self-assembly or mimic molecular biology systems.

A combination of these approaches may also be used, in which nanoscale molecules are integrated into a top-down framework. One such example is the carbon nanotube nanomotor.

 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Nanoelectromechanical_systems". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
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