Method of manufacturing a temperature-compensated micromechanical resonator
AssigneeThe Regents of the University of Michigan
InventorsMina Raieszadeh, Zhengzheng Wu, Vikram Atul Thakar, Adam Peczalski
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Abstract
A method of making a temperature-compensated resonator is presented. The method comprises the steps of: (a) providing a substrate including a device layer; (b) replacing material from the device layer with material having an opposite temperature coefficient of elasticity (TCE) along a pre-determined region of high strain energy density for the resonator; (c) depositing a capping layer over the replacement material; and (d) etch-releasing the resonator from the substrate. The resonator may be a part of a micro electromechanical system (MEMS).
Claims19
A method of making a temperature compensated resonator for use in a MEMS device, comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a substrate including a device layer;
- (b) replacing material from the device layer with a replacement material along a predetermined region of high strain energy density for a resonating portion of the resonator, wherein one of the device layer material or the replacement material has a positive temperature coefficient of elasticity (TCE), and the other one of the device layer material or the replacement material has a negative TCE;
- (c) depositing a capping layer over the replacement material;
- and
- (d) etch-releasing the resonator from the substrate,
- wherein the resonating portion of the resonator is configured to oscillate at a desired frequency when excited by a transducer, and
- wherein the resonating portion of the resonator comprises both the device layer material and the replacement material, thereby imparting the resonator with a temperature coefficient of frequency (TCF) that is lower than the TCF of the resonator without the replacement material.
A method of making a temperature compensated resonator for use in a MEMS device, comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a substrate including a device layer;
- (b) replacing material from the device layer with a replacement material along a pre-determined region of high strain energy density for a resonating portion of the resonator, wherein one of the device layer material or the replacement material comprises an oxide of the other material;
- (c) depositing a capping layer over the replacement material;
- and
- (d) etch-releasing the resonator from the substrate,
- wherein the resonating portion of the resonator is configured to oscillate at a desired frequency when excited by a transducer, and
- wherein step (b) comprises forming a trench in the device layer and disposing said oxide along the trench.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.