engleski

Silicon Carbide MEMS Based Tunable Resonator Filters

Micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) resonators have emerged as a potential candidate technology for implementation of high-Q tunable filters that are able to solve power consumption and miniaturization issues. Electrically tunable filters with a wide operational range are crucial elements in both multiband communication systems and wideband tracking receivers because they have the ability to replace filter banks. Silicon carbide (SiC), due to its excellent electrical, mechanical and chemical properties, is one of the most promising materials for high efficiency MEMS resonators. Recently, we have demonstrated a silicon carbide MEMS based resonator filter that is actuated electrothermally and sensed piezoelectrically. Electrothermal technique for induction of mechanical vibrations has been attracting increasing attention as a means of allowing simple fabrication process, low actuation voltages, impedance matching and effective frequency tuning. Piezoelectric transduction allows active generation of electrical potential in response to an applied mechanical stress (no bias voltage source is needed), and it enables stronger electromechanical coupling and simpler fabrication process compared to the electrostatic transduction. In this work, we present a two-port SiC MEMS resonator device electrothermally actuated with u-shaped designed electrode in order to provide tunable filter function with wide operation range (Figure 1). Two-port transmission frequency response measurements have shown that, by increasing the DC bias of the actuating voltage from 3 to 7 V, the operating frequency of a 1.4 MHz device can be adjusted up to 31%. Details of the design, fabrication processes and measurement setup will be presented. Moreover, the origin of resonant frequency change induced by tuning DC voltage will be studied.

MEMS resonator; tunable filter; electro- thermal actuation; piezoelectric sensing

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