Tunable cavity resonator including a plurality of MEMS beams
First Claim
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1. A tunable cavity resonator comprising:
- a substrate;
a cap structure extending from the substrate, at least one of the substrate and the cap structure defining a resonator cavity; and
a tuning assembly positioned at least partially within the resonator cavity, the tuning assembly including a plurality of fixed-fixed MEMS beams configured for controllable movement relative to the substrate between an activated position and a deactivated position in order to tune a resonant frequency of the tunable cavity resonator.
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Abstract
A tunable cavity resonator includes a substrate, a cap structure, and a tuning assembly. The cap structure extends from the substrate, and at least one of the substrate and the cap structure defines a resonator cavity. The tuning assembly is positioned at least partially within the resonator cavity. The tuning assembly includes a plurality of fixed-fixed MEMS beams configured for controllable movement relative to the substrate between an activated position and a deactivated position in order to tune a resonant frequency of the tunable cavity resonator.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A tunable cavity resonator comprising:
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a substrate; a cap structure extending from the substrate, at least one of the substrate and the cap structure defining a resonator cavity; and a tuning assembly positioned at least partially within the resonator cavity, the tuning assembly including a plurality of fixed-fixed MEMS beams configured for controllable movement relative to the substrate between an activated position and a deactivated position in order to tune a resonant frequency of the tunable cavity resonator. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A tunable cavity resonator comprising:
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a substrate; a cap structure extending from the substrate, at least one of the substrate and the cap structure defining a resonator cavity; a tuning assembly positioned at least partially within the resonator cavity, the tuning assembly including a plurality of fixed-fixed MEMS beams configured for controllable movement relative to the substrate and a plurality of actuators, each actuator of the plurality of actuators being configured to controllably cause movement of one of the fixed-fixed MEMS beams of the plurality of fixed-fixed MEMS beams; a DC biasing network configured to generate a dynamic activation signal for activating at least one fixed-fixed MEMS beam of the plurality of fixed-fixed MEMS beams, wherein in response to a unit step activation signal the at least one fixed-fixed MEMS beam is moved from an initial position to a peak position in a peak time period, wherein the dynamic activation signal includes a rise time portion in which a magnitude of the activation signal is increased from an initial value, to a first intermediate value, and then to a peak value, wherein the rise time portion is started in response to the generation of the dynamic activation signal and ends in response to the dynamic activation signal having the peak value, wherein the dynamic activation signal is maintained at the first intermediate value for a first predetermined time period, wherein a duration of the rise time portion is greater than a duration of the peak time period, wherein a plurality of electrostatic spaces is defined between each fixed-fixed MEMS beam of the plurality of fixed-fixed MEMS beams and the substrate, and wherein each actuator of the plurality of actuators is spaced apart from the plurality of electrostatic spaces. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20)
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18. A method of tuning a tunable cavity resonator including a plurality of MEMS beams and a DC biasing network electrically coupled to the plurality of MEMS beams and configured to generate a dynamic activation signal for controllably moving at least one of the MEMS beams between an activated position and an initial position, the method comprising:
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increasing a voltage magnitude of the dynamic activation signal from an initial value to a peak value during a rise-time time period, the rise-time time period ending in response to the voltage magnitude being the peak value; and causing at least one MEMS beam to move from the initial position to the activated position in response to increasing the voltage magnitude of the dynamic activation signal, the at least one MEMS beam being in the activated position at the end of the rise-time time period, wherein in response to a unit step activation signal the at least one MEMS beam is moved from an initial position to a peak position in a peak time period, wherein a duration of the rise time portion is greater than a duration of the peak time period, and wherein a magnitude of the peak position is greater than a magnitude of the activated position.
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Specification