Development of temperature-stable, high-performance silicon resonators

我们对物联网模块、可穿戴设备和移动计算平台等智能系统的依赖正在迅速增长，每年此类系统的销量高达数十亿美元。这些复杂的系统依赖于在芯片、封装或电路板级别集成的硅微机械或微电子设备。这些独立的系统利用基准振荡器来同步事件或在彼此之间以及与其他系统之间进行通信。石英谐振器目前用于实现这些基准振荡器，占美国75亿美元计时市场的大部分。然而，由于石英谐振器不能集成到硅微系统中，人们一直在努力开发硅谐振器来取代石英。硅谐振器的高温度敏感性一直是其在时序基准中采用的主要障碍。尽管有许多实验室演示，但大多数建议的解决方案并未演变为可扩展的制造解决方案。一方面，学术界的工作往往依赖于稀少的经验数据，并孤立地追求大规模制造的限制。另一方面，工艺优化是一个复杂的、多变量的问题，不能通过有限的实验来解决。该项目将SFU的研究人员与积极进取的工业合作伙伴Stathera结合在一起，开发可扩展的被动温度补偿技术，以对抗或超过石英晶体的性能。该团队将开发多尺度、基于物理的模型，以研究不同工艺参数下硅的热响应。这些模型将通过SFU的制造运行进行实验评估。然后，最有希望的解决方案将通过铸造厂进行试验。研究结果将用于改进模型和设计未来产品开发的设备设计方法。拟议的研究具有多学科性质，将吸引来自不同背景的研究人员。通过仔细考虑和处理公平和包容性问题，该项目创造了一个极好的机会，培训12名HQP，他们将领导加拿大在这一领域的参与。

Our reliance on smart systems in the form of IoT modules, wearables, and mobile computing platforms is rapidly growing, where billions of such systems are sold annually. These complex systems rely on silicon micromechanical or microelectronic devices that are integrated at the chip, package, or board levels. These independent systems utilize reference oscillators to synchronize events or communicate between each other and with other systems. Quartz resonators are presently used to realize these reference oscillators and account for most of the US $7.5B timing market. However, since quartz resonators cannot be integrated within silicon microsystems, there has been a significant effort to develop silicon resonators to replace quartz. The high temperature sensitivity of silicon resonators has been the major obstacle to their adoption in timing references. Despite numerous laboratory demonstrations, most proposed solutions do not evolve into scalable manufacturing solutions. On the one hand, the work in academia has often relied on sparse empirical data and pursued in isolation from the constraints of large-scale manufacturing. On the other hand, process optimization is a complex, multi-variable problem that cannot be solved through limited experiments. This project brings together the researchers at SFU with a motivated industrial partner, Stathera, to develop scalable, passive temperature compensation techniques to rival or exceed the performance of quartz crystals. The team will develop multiscale, physics-based models for the thermal response of silicon under different processing parameters. These models will be evaluated experimentally through fabrication runs at SFU. The most promising solutions will then be tried through foundry runs. The results will be used to improve models and devise device design methods for future product development.The multidisciplinary nature of the proposed research will appeal to researchers from diverse backgrounds. By carefully considering and attending to equity and inclusivity issues, this project creates an excellent opportunity to train 12 HQP who will lead Canada's engagement in this field.