Nano electromechanical integrated-circuit filter

• US 8,314,665 B2
• Filed: 09/20/2007
• Issued: 11/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Clariant International Ltd (Clariant AG), Trustees of Boston University
• Original Assignee: Trustees of Boston University
• Inventors: Mohanty, Pritiraj, Badzey, Robert L., Gaidarzhy, Alexei
• Primary Examiner(s): Summons, Barbara
• Application Number:
  US12/311,141
• Publication Number:
  US 20100007443A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,888 Days
• Field of Search: 333186-192, 333/197, 333/200, 257/415, 977/701, 977/932
• US Class Current: 333/186
• CPC Class Codes: H03H 9/485 for microelectro-mechanical filters
• CPC Class Codes: H03H 9/525 for microelectro-mechanical filters

Abstract

A nano electromechanical integrated circuit filter and method of making. The filter comprises a silicon substrate; a sacrificial layer; a device layer including at least one resonator, wherein the resonator includes sub-micron excitable elements and wherein the at least one resonator possess a fundamental mode frequency as well as a collective mode frequency and wherein the collective mode frequency of the at least one resonator is determined by the fundamental frequency of the sub-micron elements.

Claims

1. An integrated circuit filter, the filter comprising:

a silicon substrate;

a sacrificial layer on the silicon substrate;

a device layer on the sacrificial layer and including at least one resonator, wherein the at least one resonator includes sub-micron excitable elements and wherein the at least one resonator possesses a fundamental mode frequency as well as a collective mode frequency and wherein the collective mode frequency of the at least one resonator is determined by the fundamental frequency of the submicron excitable elements.

2. The filter of claim 1, wherein the at least one resonator comprises a first resonator and a second resonator connected to the first resonator by a connector.

3. The filter of claim 2, wherein the connector is electrical in characteristic.

4. The filter of claim 2, wherein a collective mode frequency of the second resonator is different than a collective mode frequency of the first resonator.

5. The filter of claim 2, wherein the second resonator is selected from the group consisting of mechanical, electrical, magnetic, optical and piezoelectric.

6. The filter of claim 2, wherein the first resonator and the second resonator in combination create a filter with an operational frequency between 10 MHz-100 GHz.

7. The filter of claim 2, wherein the connector between the first resonator and the second resonator is selected from the group consisting of capacitive, electrostatic, optical, thermomechanical, magnetic, piezoelectric/resistive, and eletrodynamic.

8. The filter of claim 1, wherein the sub-micron excitable elements vibrate in a mode selected from the group consisting of flexural, torsional shear, and longitudinal.

9. The filter of claim 1, wherein the sub-micron excitable elements vary in size and fundamental mode frequency to determine more than one collective mode frequency.

10. The filter of claim 1, in combination with at least one additional filter to form a bank of filters of similar frequency response.

11. The filter of claim 1, in combination with at least one additional filter operating at multiple frequency bands.

12. The filter of claim 1, in combination with at least one additional filter operating at similar frequency bands.

13. The filter of claim 1, wherein an operational frequency response of the filter is selected from the group consisting of:

high pass, low pass, band pass, notch, and arbitrary.

14. The filter of claim 1, wherein the sacrificial layer is patterned to suspend the at least one resonator above the substrate.

15. The filter of claim 1, wherein the sub-micron excitable elements are excited by a transduction mechanism selected from the group consisting of piezoelectric, magnetomotive, magnetostatic, electrostatic capacitive transduction, optical, thermoelastic, thermomechanical, and piezoresistive.

16. The filter of claim 1, wherein the at least one resonator comprises a plurality of sub-micron excitable elements arranged along a length of the at least one resonator.

17. The filter of claim 1, wherein the filter is combined with other electronic elements within an integrated circuit.

18. The filter of claim 1, wherein the at least one resonator is suspended above the silicon substrate.

19. An integrated circuit filter, the filter comprising:

a silicon substrate;

a sacrificial layer coupled to the silicon substrate;

a device layer, wherein the sacrificial layer is at least partially between the silicon substrate and the device layer, and wherein the device layer comprises at least one resonator, wherein the at least one resonator includes sub-micron excitable elements having a fundamental mode frequency and wherein the at least one resonator possesses a collective mode frequency determined by the fundamental mode frequency of the submicron excitable elements,

wherein the sub-micron excitable elements vary in size and fundamental mode frequency to determine more than one collective mode frequency of the at least one resonator,

wherein the more than one collective mode frequency can be combined to generate a desired filter response.