Capacitance based tunable micromechanical resonators
First Claim
1. A micromechanical actuator, comprisinga micromechanical structure having a first stationary component and a second component relatively movable with respect to said first component;
- a first set of spaced-apart, substantially parallel comb-type electrode fingers mounted on said first component;
a second set of spaced-apart, substantially parallel comb-type electrode fingers mounted on said second component, said fingers of said first and second sets being coplanar and in opposed, nonoverlapping relationship with a gap therebetween; and
a bias voltage source connected across said first and second sets of electrodes to produce an electrostatic field therebetween.
8 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A tunable electromicromechanical resonator structure incorporates an electrostatic actuator which permits reduction or enhancement of the resonant frequency of the structure. The actuator consists of two sets of opposed electrode fingers, each set having a multiplicity of spaced, parallel fingers. One set is mounted on a movable portion of the resonator structure and one set is mounted on an adjacent fixed base on substrate, with the fingers in opposed relationship and their adjacent ends spaced apart by a gap. An adjustable bias voltage across the sets of electrodes adjusts the resonant frequency of the movable structure.
-
Citations
18 Claims
-
1. A micromechanical actuator, comprising
a micromechanical structure having a first stationary component and a second component relatively movable with respect to said first component; -
a first set of spaced-apart, substantially parallel comb-type electrode fingers mounted on said first component; a second set of spaced-apart, substantially parallel comb-type electrode fingers mounted on said second component, said fingers of said first and second sets being coplanar and in opposed, nonoverlapping relationship with a gap therebetween; and a bias voltage source connected across said first and second sets of electrodes to produce an electrostatic field therebetween. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
-
-
12. An electromicromechanical resonator, comprising:
-
a substrate; a micromechanical beam structure having micron-scale dimensions movable with respect to said substrate along an axis; spring arms connected between said beam and said substrate, said spring arms and movable beam having a rest position and having a natural resonant frequency; first and second electrostatic actuators, each actuator having a first set of finger electrodes mounted on said beam, and each actuator having a second set of finger electrodes mounted on said substrate, said first and second sets of electrodes each actuator being opposed and non-overlapping to provide a gap therebetween; and an adjustable bias voltage connected across each set of electrodes to adjust said resonant frequency. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
-
Specification