Third-order intermodulation distortion in capacitively-driven CC-beam micromechanical resonators

TL;DR: In this paper, a laterally vibrating disk resonator, fabricated via a technology combining polysilicon surface-micromachining and metal electroplating to attain sub-micron lateral capacitive gaps, has been demonstrated at frequencies as high as 829 MHz and with Q's up to 23 000 at 193 MHz.

Abstract: A micromechanical, laterally vibrating disk resonator, fabricated via a technology combining polysilicon surface-micromachining and metal electroplating to attain submicron lateral capacitive gaps, has been demonstrated at frequencies as high as 829 MHz and with Q's as high as 23 000 at 193 MHz. Furthermore, the resonators have been demonstrated operating in the first three radial contour modes, allowing a significant frequency increase without scaling the device, and a 193 MHz resonator has been shown operating at atmospheric pressure with a Q of 8,880, evidence that vacuum packaging is not necessary for many applications. These results represent an important step toward reaching the frequencies required by the RF front-ends in wireless transceivers. The geometric dimensions necessary to reach a given frequency are larger for this contour-mode than for the flexural-modes used by previous resonators. This, coupled with its unprecedented Q value, makes this disk resonator a choice candidate for use in the IF and RF stages of future miniaturized transceivers. Finally, a number of measurement techniques are demonstrated, including two electromechanical mixing techniques, and evaluated for their ability to measure the performance of sub-optimal (e.g., insufficiently small capacitive gap, limited dc-bias), high-frequency, high-Q micromechanical resonators under conditions where parasitic effects could otherwise mask motional output currents. [1051].

TL;DR: In this article, the authors used a parallel array of corner-coupled polysilicon square plate resonators to achieve a motional resistance reduction of 5.9X.

TL;DR: An overview of the latest in vibrating RF MEMS technology is presented with an addendum on remaining issues to be addressed for insertion into tomorrow's handsets.

TL;DR: Free-free-beam flexural-mode micromechanical resonators utilizing nonintrusive supports to achieve measured Qs as high as 8400 at VHF frequencies from 30 to 90 MHz are demonstrated in a polysilicon surface micromachining technology as mentioned in this paper.

TL;DR: In this paper, a polysilicon surface micromachining technology was used to achieve measured Q's as high as 8,400 at VHF frequencies from 30-90 MHz.