Exploiting NiTi shape memory alloy films in design of tunable high frequency microcantilever resonators

Shape memory alloy (SMA) films are very attractive materials for microactuators because of their high energy density. However, all currently developed SMA actuators utilize martensitic transformation activated by periodically generated heating and cooling; therefore, they have a slow actuation speed, just a few Hz, which restricts their use in most of the nanotechnology applications such as high frequency microcantilever based physical and chemical sensors, atomic force microscopes, or RF filters. Here, we design tunable high frequency SMA microcantilevers for nanotechnology applications. They consist of a phase transforming NiTi SMA film sputtered on the common elastic substrate material; in our case, it is a single-crystal silicon. The reversible tuning of microcantilever resonant frequencies is then realized by intentionally changing the Young's modulus and the interlayer stress of the NiTi film by temperature, while the elastic substrate guarantees the high frequency actuation (up to hundreds of kHz) ...