A Novel Lame Mode RF-MEMS resonator with high quality factor

A B S T R A C T This work presents a high-performance Lame mode resonator with high Q values. The anchor loss and thermoelastic damping (TED) were effectively decreased with the optimized tether design and etch hole distribution. A simple and reliable process was developed to batch fabricate the Lame mode resonators with nano-scale spacing gap. In air, a low bias voltage of 2.5 V can excite a resonance peak height over 26 dB for the resonator with high Q of 8900. In vacuum, the required bias voltage was further down to 1.5 V, which is the lowest one among the reported Lame mode resonators. A boosted Q value of 128400 was obtained, corresponding to the highest f x Q product of 6.60 x 10 12 among the state-of-art perforated ones. Moreover, the nonlinearities were experimentally observed, which provides helpful guidance on the stable operation of the resonators. The proposed resonator could have potential in building up advanced wireless communication systems with low power consumption and high-level integration.

Automated summary

This work introduces a high-performance Lame mode resonator with optimized design to decrease anchor loss and thermoelastic damping, and developed a simple and reliable process for batch fabrication. Impressive performance was achieved in both air and vacuum, and nonlinearities were observed experimentally, providing useful guidance for stable operation.