Local and CMOS-compatible synthesis of CuO nanowires on a suspended microheater on a silicon substrate

This paper presents the synthesis of CuO nanowires using a localized thermal heating method in ambient air. It employs local heat sources defined in micro-resistive heaters fabricated by a standard polysilicon-based surface micromachining process instead of a global furnace heating. Since the synthesis is performed globally at room temperature, the presented process is compatible with standard CMOS. The synthesized CuO nanowires are characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and high resolution transmission electron microscopy. It is found that this approach provides a simple method to locally synthesize suspended CuO nanowires on polysilicon microbridges on silicon substrates, thus allowing for integration of CuO nanowires into silicon-based devices. It provides a significant step towards the process integration of CuO nanowires with MEMS to realize functional devices. © 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd.