Highly tunable low-impedance capacitive micromechanical resonators, oscillators, and processes relating thereto

Apparatus comprising:

• 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;
• a trans-impedance amplifier coupled to a selected electrode;
• and
• a buffer coupled to an output of the trans-impedance amplifier that outputs an oscillator frequency signal and selectively feeds back a voltage to the selected electrode or a selected one of the anchors.

Apparatus comprising:

• 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.

Apparatus comprising:

• 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.