Micro-Resonators: The Quest for Superior Performance

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "A:Physics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 June 2018) | Viewed by 48036

Printed Edition Available!
A printed edition of this Special Issue is available here.

Special Issue Editor

Dynamic Microsystems Lab, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA
Interests: MEMS/NEMS; resonant sensors; IR sensors; bio-sensors
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Microelectromechanical resonators are no longer solely a subject of research in university and government labs; they have found a variety of applications at industrial scale, where their market is predicted to grow steadily. Nevertheless, many barriers to enhance their performance and further spread their application remain to be overcome. In this Special Issue, we will focus our attention to some of the persistent challenges of micro-/nano-resonators such as nonlinearity, temperature stability, acceleration sensitivity, limits of quality factor, and failure modes that require a more in-depth understanding of the physics of vibration at small scale. The goal is to seek innovative solutions that take advantage of unique material properties and original designs to push the performance of micro-resonators beyond what is conventionally achievable. Contributions from academia discussing less-known characteristics of micro-resonators and from industry depicting the challenges of large-scale implementation of resonators are encouraged with the hopes of further stimulating the growth of this field, which is rich with fascinating physics and challenging problems.

Prof. Dr. Reza Abdolvand
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Micro-resonator

  • Nonlinearity

  • Temperature Stability

  • Loss Mechanism

  • Failure

Published Papers (11 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Editorial

Jump to: Research

2 pages, 138 KiB  
Editorial
Editorial for the Special Issue on Micro-Resonators: The Quest for Superior Performance
by Reza Abdolvand
Micromachines 2018, 9(12), 623; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi9120623 - 27 Nov 2018
Viewed by 1732
Abstract
Micro-resonators have reached a distinctive level of maturity due to the accumulated wealth of knowledge on their design, modeling, and manufacturing during the past few decades [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Resonators: The Quest for Superior Performance)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

10 pages, 6370 KiB  
Article
Utilization of 2:1 Internal Resonance in Microsystems
by Navid Noori, Atabak Sarrafan, Farid Golnaraghi and Behraad Bahreyni
Micromachines 2018, 9(9), 448; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi9090448 - 08 Sep 2018
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3060
Abstract
In this paper, the nonlinear mode coupling at 2:1 internal resonance has been studied both analytically and experimentally. A modified micro T-beam structure is proposed, and the equations of motion are developed using Lagrange’s energy method. A two-variable expansion perturbation method is used [...] Read more.
In this paper, the nonlinear mode coupling at 2:1 internal resonance has been studied both analytically and experimentally. A modified micro T-beam structure is proposed, and the equations of motion are developed using Lagrange’s energy method. A two-variable expansion perturbation method is used to describe the nonlinear behavior of the system. It is shown that in a microresonator with 2:1 internal resonance, the low-frequency mode is autoparametrically excited after the excitation amplitude reaches a certain threshold. The effect of damping on the performance of the system is also investigated. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Resonators: The Quest for Superior Performance)
Show Figures

Figure 1

10 pages, 6822 KiB  
Article
Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) Like Transmission Based on 3 × 3 Cascaded Multimode Interference Resonators
by Trung-Thanh Le
Micromachines 2018, 9(8), 417; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi9080417 - 20 Aug 2018
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3658
Abstract
We propose a method for generating the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) like-transmission by using microring resonator based on cascaded 3 × 3 multimode interference (MMI) structures. Based on the Fano resonance unit created from a 3 × 3 MMI coupler with a feedback [...] Read more.
We propose a method for generating the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) like-transmission by using microring resonator based on cascaded 3 × 3 multimode interference (MMI) structures. Based on the Fano resonance unit created from a 3 × 3 MMI coupler with a feedback waveguide, two schemes of two coupled Fano resonator unit (FRU) are investigated to generate the EIT like transmission. The theoretical and numerical analysis based on the coupled mode theory and transfer matrix is used for the designs. Our proposed structure has advantages of compactness and ease of fabrication. We use silicon waveguide for the design of the whole device so it is compatible with the existing Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) circuitry foundry. The fabrication tolerance and design parameters are also investigated in this study. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Resonators: The Quest for Superior Performance)
Show Figures

Figure 1

12 pages, 16325 KiB  
Article
Wide Acoustic Bandgap Solid Disk-Shaped Phononic Crystal Anchoring Boundaries for Enhancing Quality Factor in AlN-on-Si MEMS Resonators
by Muhammad Wajih Ullah Siddiqi and Joshua E.-Y. Lee
Micromachines 2018, 9(8), 413; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi9080413 - 18 Aug 2018
Cited by 30 | Viewed by 5495
Abstract
This paper demonstrates the four fold enhancement in quality factor (Q) of a very high frequency (VHF) band piezoelectric Aluminum Nitride (AlN) on Silicon (Si) Lamb mode resonator by applying a unique wide acoustic bandgap (ABG) phononic crystal (PnC) at the anchoring boundaries [...] Read more.
This paper demonstrates the four fold enhancement in quality factor (Q) of a very high frequency (VHF) band piezoelectric Aluminum Nitride (AlN) on Silicon (Si) Lamb mode resonator by applying a unique wide acoustic bandgap (ABG) phononic crystal (PnC) at the anchoring boundaries of the resonator. The PnC unit cell topology, based on a solid disk, is characterized by a wide ABG of 120 MHz around a center frequency of 144.7 MHz from the experiments. The resulting wide ABG described in this work allows for greater enhancement in Q compared to previously reported PnC cell topologies characterized by narrower ABGs. The effect of geometrical variations to the proposed PnC cells on their corresponding ABGs are described through simulations and validated by transmission measurements of fabricated delay lines that incorporate these solid disk PnCs. Experiments demonstrate that widening the ABG associated with the PnC described herein provides for higher Q. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Resonators: The Quest for Superior Performance)
Show Figures

Figure 1

8 pages, 2407 KiB  
Article
Micro-Fabricated Resonator Based on Inscribing a Meandered-Line Coupling Capacitor in an Air-Bridged Circular Spiral Inductor
by Eun Seong Kim and Nam Young Kim
Micromachines 2018, 9(6), 294; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi9060294 - 12 Jun 2018
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4906
Abstract
This letter presents a high-performance micro-fabricated resonator based on inscribing a meandered-line square coupling capacitor in an air-bridged circular spiral inductor on the GaAs-integrated passive device (IPD) technology. The main advantages of the proposed method, which inserts a highly effective coupling capacitor between [...] Read more.
This letter presents a high-performance micro-fabricated resonator based on inscribing a meandered-line square coupling capacitor in an air-bridged circular spiral inductor on the GaAs-integrated passive device (IPD) technology. The main advantages of the proposed method, which inserts a highly effective coupling capacitor between the two halves of a circular spiral inductor, are the miniaturized size, enhanced coupling coefficient, and improved selectivity. Moreover, using an air-bridge structure utilizes the enhanced mutual inductance in which it maximizes the self-inductance by a stacking inductor layout to obtain a high coupling effect. The simulated and measured S-parameters of a prototype resonator with an effective overall circuit size of 1000 µm × 800 µm are in good agreement. The measured insertion and return losses of 0.41 and 24.21 dB, respectively, at a measured central frequency of 1.627 GHz, as well as an upper band transmission zero with a suppression level of 38.7 dB, indicate the excellent selectivity of the developed resonator. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Resonators: The Quest for Superior Performance)
Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 6922 KiB  
Article
Acceleration Sensitivity in Bulk-Extensional Mode, Silicon-Based MEMS Oscillators
by Beheshte Khazaeili, Jonathan Gonzales and Reza Abdolvand
Micromachines 2018, 9(5), 233; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi9050233 - 12 May 2018
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4375
Abstract
Acceleration sensitivity in silicon bulk-extensional mode oscillators is studied in this work, and a correlation between the resonator alignment to different crystalline planes of silicon and the observed acceleration sensitivity is established. It is shown that the oscillator sensitivity to the applied vibration [...] Read more.
Acceleration sensitivity in silicon bulk-extensional mode oscillators is studied in this work, and a correlation between the resonator alignment to different crystalline planes of silicon and the observed acceleration sensitivity is established. It is shown that the oscillator sensitivity to the applied vibration is significantly lower when the silicon-based lateral-extensional mode resonator is aligned to the <110> plane compared to when the same resonator is aligned to <100>. A finite element model is developed that is capable of predicting the resonance frequency variation when a distributed load (i.e., acceleration) is applied to the resonator. Using this model, the orientation-dependent nature of acceleration sensitivity is confirmed, and the effect of material nonlinearity on the acceleration sensitivity is also verified. A thin-film piezoelectric-on-substrate platform is chosen for the implementation of resonators. Approximately, one order of magnitude higher acceleration sensitivity is measured for oscillators built with a resonator aligned to the <100> plane versus those with a resonator aligned to the <110> plane (an average of ~5.66 × 10−8 (1/g) vs. ~3.66 × 10−9 (1/g), respectively, for resonators on a degenerately n-type doped silicon layer). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Resonators: The Quest for Superior Performance)
Show Figures

Figure 1

19 pages, 2056 KiB  
Article
Monostable Dynamic Analysis of Microbeam-Based Resonators via an Improved One Degree of Freedom Model
by Lei Li, Qichang Zhang, Wei Wang and Jianxin Han
Micromachines 2018, 9(2), 89; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi9020089 - 22 Feb 2018
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3426
Abstract
Monostable vibration can eliminate dynamic bifurcation and improve system stability, which is required in many microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) applications, such as microbeam-based and comb-driven resonators. This article aims to theoretically investigate the monostable vibration in size-effected MEMS via a low dimensional model. An [...] Read more.
Monostable vibration can eliminate dynamic bifurcation and improve system stability, which is required in many microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) applications, such as microbeam-based and comb-driven resonators. This article aims to theoretically investigate the monostable vibration in size-effected MEMS via a low dimensional model. An improved single degree of freedom model to describe electrically actuated microbeam-based resonators is obtained by using modified couple stress theory and Nonlinear Galerkin method. Static displacement, pull-in voltage, resonant frequency and especially the monostable dynamic behaviors of the resonators are investigated in detail. Through perturbation analysis, an approximate average equation is derived by the application of the method of Multiple Scales. Theoretical expressions about parameter space and maximum amplitude of monostable vibration are then deduced. Results show that this improved model can describe the static behavior more accurately than that of single degree of freedom model via traditional Galerkin Method. This desired monostable large amplitude vibration is significantly affected by the ratio of the gap width to mircobeam thickness. The optimization design results show that reasonable decrease of this ratio can be beneficial to monostable vibration. All these analytical results are verified by numerical results via Differential Quadrature method, which show excellent agreement with each other. This analysis has the potential of improving dynamic performance in MEMS. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Resonators: The Quest for Superior Performance)
Show Figures

Figure 1

12 pages, 9871 KiB  
Article
Micro-Electromechanical Acoustic Resonator Coated with Polyethyleneimine Nanofibers for the Detection of Formaldehyde Vapor
by Da Chen, Lei Yang, Wenhua Yu, Maozeng Wu, Wei Wang and Hongfei Wang
Micromachines 2018, 9(2), 62; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi9020062 - 01 Feb 2018
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 5794
Abstract
We demonstrate a promising strategy to combine the micro-electromechanical film bulk acoustic resonator and the nanostructured sensitive fibers for the detection of low-concentration formaldehyde vapor. The polyethyleneimine nanofibers were directly deposited on the resonator surface by a simple electrospinning method. The film bulk [...] Read more.
We demonstrate a promising strategy to combine the micro-electromechanical film bulk acoustic resonator and the nanostructured sensitive fibers for the detection of low-concentration formaldehyde vapor. The polyethyleneimine nanofibers were directly deposited on the resonator surface by a simple electrospinning method. The film bulk acoustic resonator working at 4.4 GHz acted as a sensitive mass loading platform and the three-dimensional structure of nanofibers provided a large specific surface area for vapor adsorption and diffusion. The ultra-small mass change induced by the absorption of formaldehyde molecules onto the amine groups in polyethyleneimine was detected by measuring the frequency downshift of the film bulk acoustic resonator. The proposed sensor exhibits a fast, reversible and linear response towards formaldehyde vapor with an excellent selectivity. The gas sensitivity and the detection limit were 1.216 kHz/ppb and 37 ppb, respectively. The study offers a great potential for developing sensitive, fast-response and portable sensors for the detection of indoor air pollutions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Resonators: The Quest for Superior Performance)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

11 pages, 3776 KiB  
Article
The Application of Chemical Foaming Method in the Fabrication of Micro Glass Hemisphere Resonator
by Jianbing Xie, Lei Chen, Hui Xie, Jinqiu Zhou and Guangcheng Liu
Micromachines 2018, 9(2), 42; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi9020042 - 24 Jan 2018
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 5345
Abstract
Many researchers have studied the miniaturization of the hemisphere resonator gyroscope for decades. The hemisphere resonator (HSR), as the core component, has a size that has been reduced to the submillimeter level. We developed a method of batch production of micro-hemisphere shell resonators [...] Read more.
Many researchers have studied the miniaturization of the hemisphere resonator gyroscope for decades. The hemisphere resonator (HSR), as the core component, has a size that has been reduced to the submillimeter level. We developed a method of batch production of micro-hemisphere shell resonators based on a glass-blowing process to obtain larger hemisphere shells with a higher ratio of height to diameter (H/D), we introduced the chemical foaming process (CFP) and acquired an optimized hemisphere shell; the contrasted and improved H/D of the hemisphere shell are 0.61 and 0.80, respectively. Finally, we increased the volume of glass shell resonator by 51.48 times while decreasing the four-node wineglass resonant frequencies from 7.24 MHz to 0.98 MHz. The larger HSR with greater surface area is helpful for setting larger surrounding drive and sense capacitive electrodes, thereby enhancing the sensitivity of HSR to the rotation. This CFP method not only provides more convenience to control the shape of a hemisphere shell but also reduces non-negligible cost in the fabrication process. In addition, this method may inspire some other research fields, e.g., microfluidics, chemical analysis, and wafer level package (WLP). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Resonators: The Quest for Superior Performance)
Show Figures

Figure 1

19 pages, 12017 KiB  
Article
Static and Dynamic Mechanical Behaviors of Electrostatic MEMS Resonator with Surface Processing Error
by Jingjing Feng, Cheng Liu, Wei Zhang and Shuying Hao
Micromachines 2018, 9(1), 34; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi9010034 - 17 Jan 2018
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 4528
Abstract
The micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) resonator developed based on surface processing technology usually changes the section shape either due to excessive etching or insufficient etching. In this paper, a section parameter is proposed to describe the microbeam changes in the upper and lower sections. [...] Read more.
The micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) resonator developed based on surface processing technology usually changes the section shape either due to excessive etching or insufficient etching. In this paper, a section parameter is proposed to describe the microbeam changes in the upper and lower sections. The effect of section change on the mechanical properties is studied analytically and verified through numerical and finite element solutions. A doubly-clamped microbeam-based resonator, which is actuated by an electrode on one side, is investigated. The higher-order model is derived without neglecting the effects of neutral plane stretching and electrostatic nonlinearity. Further, the Galerkin method and Newton–Cotes method are used to reduce the complexity and order of the derived model. First of all, the influence of microbeam shape and gap variation on the static pull-in are studied. Then, the dynamic analysis of the system is investigated. The method of multiple scales (MMS) is applied to determine the response of the system for small amplitude vibrations. The relationship between the microbeam shape and the frequency response is discussed. Results show that the change of section and gap distance can make the vibration soften, harden, and so on. Furthermore, when the amplitude of vibration is large, the frequency response softening effect is weakened by the MMS. If the nonlinearity shows hardening-type behavior at the beginning, with the increase of the amplitude, the frequency response will shift from hardening to softening behavior. The large amplitude in-well motions are studied to investigate the transitions between hardening and softening behaviors. Finally, the finite element analysis using COMSOL software (COMSOL Inc., Stockholm, Sweden) is carried out to verify the theoretical results, and the two results are very close to each other in the stable region. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Resonators: The Quest for Superior Performance)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

2514 KiB  
Article
Micromachined Resonant Frequency Tuning Unit for Torsional Resonator
by Jae-Ik Lee, Bongwon Jeong, Sunwoo Park, Youngkee Eun and Jongbaeg Kim
Micromachines 2017, 8(12), 342; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi8120342 - 25 Nov 2017
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4478
Abstract
Achieving the desired resonant frequency of resonators has been an important issue, since it determines their performance. This paper presents the design and analysis of two concepts for the resonant frequency tuning of resonators. The proposed methods are based on the stiffness alteration [...] Read more.
Achieving the desired resonant frequency of resonators has been an important issue, since it determines their performance. This paper presents the design and analysis of two concepts for the resonant frequency tuning of resonators. The proposed methods are based on the stiffness alteration of the springs by geometrical modification (shaft-widening) or by mechanical restriction (shaft-holding) using micromachined frequency tuning units. Our designs have advantages in (1) reversible and repetitive tuning; (2) decoupled control over the amplitude of the resonator and the tuning ratio; and (3) a wide range of applications including torsional resonators. The ability to tune the frequency by both methods is predicted by finite element analysis (FEA) and experimentally verified on a torsional resonator driven by an electrostatic actuator. The tuning units and resonators are fabricated on a double silicon-on-insulator (DSOI) wafer to electrically insulate the resonator from the tuning units. The shaft-widening type and shaft-holding type exhibit a maximum tuning ratio of 5.29% and 10.7%, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Resonators: The Quest for Superior Performance)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop