Enhanced Silicon Microresonator Oscillators

由于一项新兴的颠覆性技术将取代电子器件中的石英晶体/集成硅谐振器，价值20亿美元的石英谐振器行业正处于重大变革的边缘。由MEMS先驱Kurt Peterson创立的SiTime公司刚刚开始生产可与集成电路技术直接集成的硅谐振器，使机械振荡器能够与电路在同一晶圆上制造。这些设备刚刚进入市场，技术还不成熟/为进一步发展提供了大量的途径。特别是硅微谐振器技术有一个主要的突出问题，本提案试图解决的是，这些硅谐振器目前接口电路的净电阻抗（或运动阻抗）太大。造成这个问题的一个原因是“气隙”致动器和传感器，目前用于连接设备。我们开发了一种新颖的内部驱动技术，并申请了专利，该技术使用pn结，可用于硅微谐振器的高效电接口。该技术与压阻传感机制相结合，有望显著降低硅基器件的运动阻抗，并为与CMOS技术的完全单片集成提供了一条途径。

The 2 billion quartz resonator industry is on the verge of major change, as a result of an emerging disruptive technology that will replace quartz crystals in electronic devices / the integrated silicon resonator. SiTime Inc., founded by MEMS pioneer Kurt Peterson, has just begun manufacturing silicon resonators that are directly integratable with integrated circuit technologies, enabling mechanical oscillators to be fabricated on the same wafer as electrical circuits. These devices are just coming to market and the technology is still immature / offering substantial avenues for further development. In particular there is a major outstanding issue with silicon microresonator technology, which this proposal seeks to address viz. the net electrical impedance (or motional impedance) that these silicon resonators present to interfacing circuits is currently too large. One reason for this problem is the 'air-gap' actuators and sensors that are currently used to interface to the devices. We have developed and patented a novel internal actuation technique using pn-junctions that can be adapted for efficient electrical interfacing to silicon microresonators. This technique combined with a piezoresistive sensing mechanism, promises to significantly reduce the motional impedance for silicon-based devices as well provide a route towards full monolithic integration with CMOS technologies.