Center-mass-reduced microbridge structures for ultra-high frequency MEM resonator
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsQing Ma, Peng Cheng
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A micro-electromechanical (MEM) resonator is described that includes a substrate, a microbridge beam structure coupled to the substrate and at least one electrode disposed adjacent to the microbridge beam structure to induce vibration of the beam. The microbridge beam structure includes support sections and a beam formed between the support sections. The center region of the beam has a mass that is less than the mass of regions of the beam adjacent to the support sections.
Claims32
A micro-electromechanical resonator comprising:
- a substrate;
- a microbridge beam structure coupled to said substrate, said microbridge beam structure including support sections and a beam formed between the support sections, wherein said beam is a portion of the microbridge beam structure capable of vibrating with respect to the substrate, wherein a center region of the beam has a mass that is less than mass of regions of the beam adjacent to the support sections, wherein dimensions of the beam are such that a resonance frequency generated by the microbridge beam structure is greater than 200 MHz;
- and
- at least one electrode disposed adjacent to said microbridge beam structure to induce vibration of said beam.
A method comprising:
- providing a microbridge structure having a rectangular-shaped beam coupled to at least one support section on a substrate, said beam being a portion of the microbridge structure capable of vibrating with respect to the substrate, wherein dimensions of the rectangular-shaped beam are such that a resonance frequency generated by the microbridge structure is greater than 200 MHz;
- and
- increasing a resonating frequency of the rectangular-shaped beam by increasing a stiffness-to-mass ratio of the beam.
An apparatus comprising:
- at least one support structure;
- and
- a microbridge beam coupled to said at least one support structure and movable with respect to a substrate on which the support structure is formed along an axis, said beam including a center region that has relatively less mass than a region adjacent to said at least one support structure to form a center mass-reduced beam having higher stiffness-to-mass ratio than if said beam were fabricated in a rectangular configuration, wherein dimensions of the microbridge beam are such that a resonance frequency generated by the microbridge beam is greater than 200 MHz.
A very high frequency (VHF) vibrating micro-electromechanical (MEM) resonator comprising:
- a substrate;
- a microbridge beam structure coupled to said substrate, said microbridge beam structure including support sections and a beam formed between the support sections, wherein said beam is a portion of the microbridge beam structure capable of vibrating with respect to the substrate, wherein a center region of the beam has a mass that is less than mass of regions of the beam adjacent to the support sections, wherein dimensions of the beam are such that a resonance frequency generated by the microbridge beam structure is the range between 30 and 200 MHz;
- and
- at least one electrode disposed adjacent to said microbridge beam structure to induce vibration of said beam.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.