<B>Abstract:</B>

Nanoscale structures with mechanical degrees of freedom offer compelling characteristics that make them not only interesting for fundamental studies, but also promising for technological applications. This talk will describe my collaborative research efforts in exploring the properties of nanowire structures, and in turning such structures into functional and high-performance nanoscale electromechanical systems (NEMS). State-of-the-art nanofabrication techniques (both bottom-up and top-down) have enabled the creation of suspended, moveable nanowires with dimensions in the previously inaccessible regimes. I will show NEMS resonators operating in the very-high and ultra-high frequency (VHF/UHF) ranges, based on silicon nanowires enabled by a hybrid bottom-up/top-down process. Exploiting the interesting properties of thin silicon nanowires, we have developed all-electronic, on-chip VHF/UHF signal transduction for such devices. This opens up the opportunities for monolithic integration at large scale, and for self-sensing nanowire NEMS that can be manufactured by industrial SOI technology. I will then report on very thin silicon carbide (SiC) nanowires and various types of SiC nanowire NEMS devices enabled by top-down lithography-nanomachining processes. I will also briefly discuss about recent progresses in very large scale integration (VLSI) of nanowire NEMS, co-integration of nanowire NEMS with nanowire transistors, along with their emerging applications in sensing and nanomechanical RF signal processing.