Synchronization of electrically coupled micromechanical oscillators with a frequency ratio of 3:1

In this Letter, synchronization of micromechanical oscillators with a frequency ratio of 3:1 is reported. Two electrically coupled piezoresistive micromechanical oscillators are built for the study, and their oscillation frequencies are tuned via the Joule heating effect to find out the synchronization region. Experimental results show that the larger coupling strength or bias driving voltage is applied and a wider synchronization region is obtained. Interestingly, however, the oscillator's frequency tunability is dramatically reduced from -809.1 Hz/V to -23.1 Hz/V when synchronization is reached. A nearly 10-fold improvement of frequency stability at 1 s is observed from one of the synchronized oscillators, showing a comparable performance of the other. The stable high order synchronization of micromechanical oscillators is helpful to design high performance resonant sensors with a better frequency resolution and a larger scale factor. Published by AIP Publishing.