Thermally Actuated Low Impedance MEMS Resonators for Mass Sensing Applications
نویسندگان
چکیده
This paper presents high-Q thermally actuated micromechanical resonators suitable for sensory applications under atmospheric pressure. Single crystal silicon resonators with resonance frequencies in the 250 KHz to 1.5MHz range were fabricated using a single-mask fabrication process on SOI substrates. The resonators were operated in a one-port configuration in their in-plane resonance mode with small beams embedded at the resonator clamping points performing both thermal actuation and piezo-resistive sensing. Equivalent impedances as low as 1.9 KΩ and quality factors as high as 20,000 under vacuum and 4,400 in atmosphere have been demonstrated for the fabricated resonators. The measurement results are justified by a brief theoretical study of thermalpiezoresistive transduction for micromechanical resonators.
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