Overview
Because of the scale on which they can function, NEMS are expected to significantly impact many areas of technology and science and eventually replace MEMS. As noted by Richard Feynman in his famous talk in 1959, There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom, there are a lot of potential applications of machines at smaller and smaller sizes; by building and controlling devices at smaller scales, all technology benefits. Among the expected benefits include greater efficiencies and reduced size, decreased power consumption and lower costs of production in electromechanical systems.
In 2000, the first very-large-scale integration (VLSI) NEMS device was demonstrated by researchers from IBM. Its premise was an array of AFM tips which can heat/sense a deformable substrate in order to function as a memory device. In 2007, the International Technical Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) contains NEMS Memory as a new entry for the Emerging Research Devices section.
Read more about this topic: Nanoelectromechanical System