Highly tunable low-impedance capacitive micromechanical resonators, oscillators, and processes relating thereto
First Claim
1. Apparatus, comprising:
- a substrate; and
resonator apparatus comprising;
one or more anchors connected to the substrate;
at least one input/output electrode that is electrically insulated from the substrate; and
a resonator comprising an extensional member coupled to the anchor and separated from the substrate, and a flexural member connected to the extensional member that is separated from the substrate and separated from the electrode by a gap.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Disclosed are capacitive micromechanical resonators optimized for high Q, low motional impedance, and large tuning range. Exemplary resonators were fabricated using a HARPSS-on-SOI process, and demonstrated quality factors up to 119000 in vacuum. For resonators operating between 3 MHz and 30 MHz, the lowest extracted impedance is 218 kΩ and the largest electrostatic tuning coefficient is −240 ppm/V2. The disclosed designs are applicable up to at least 200 MHz operation. An oscillator interface circuit comprising of a trans-impedance amplifier and an automatic bias generator providing a temperature-compensating bias voltage is also disclosed. Experiments show temperature drift reduction from 2800 ppm to 39 ppm over a 100° C. range. Process compensation (DFM) of micromechanical resonators, resonators having mass loading elements that allow generation of closely spaced frequencies, and coupled systems comprising of the resonators are also described.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. Apparatus, comprising:
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a substrate; and resonator apparatus comprising; one or more anchors connected to the substrate; at least one input/output electrode that is electrically insulated from the substrate; and a resonator comprising an extensional member coupled to the anchor and separated from the substrate, and a flexural member connected to the extensional member that is separated from the substrate and separated from the electrode by a gap. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. Apparatus comprising:
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a substrate; a plurality of anchors connected to the substrate; a plurality of input/output electrodes that is electrically insulated from the substrate; and a resonator comprising an extensional member coupled to the anchor and separated from the substrate, and a plurality of flexural members connected to distal ends of the extensional member that are separated from the substrate and separated from the electrodes by a gap; a bias generator for generating a bias voltage coupled to a selected one of the anchors; and a trans-impedance amplifier coupled to a selected electrode that selectively feeds back a voltage to at least one input/output electrode, or a selected one of the one or more anchors directly or through a buffer. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
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20. Apparatus comprising:
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a substrate; a plurality of resonator apparatus disposed on the substrate that each comprise; a plurality of anchors connected to the substrate; a plurality of input/output electrodes that is electrically insulated from the substrate; and a resonator comprising an extensional member coupled to the anchor and separated from the substrate, and a plurality of flexural members connected to distal ends of the extensional member that are separated from the substrate and separated from the electrodes by a gap; and wherein selected ones of the resonators further comprise one or more mass loading elements selectively disposed on the flexural and extensional members, and when each resonator apparatus is operative over a different predetermined frequency range which is a function of the mass and location of the one or more one or more mass loading elements.
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21. Apparatus comprising:
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a substrate; a plurality of resonator apparatus disposed on the substrate that each comprise; a plurality of anchors connected to the substrate; a plurality of input/output electrodes that is electrically insulated from the substrate; a resonator comprising an extensional member coupled to the anchor and separated from the substrate, and a plurality of flexural members connected to distal ends of the extensional member that are separated from the substrate and separated from the electrodes by a gap; and coupling apparatus for coupling the plurality of resonator apparatus together to provide a coupled resonator response.
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Specification