Clock device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12289092-B2
Application number	US-202017757308-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 10, 2020
Priority date	Dec 16, 2019
Publication date	Apr 29, 2025
Grant date	Apr 29, 2025

Abstract

The present description concerns a clock signal generation device ( 902 ) comprising: a microelectromechanical resonant element ( 504 ); and at least one nanoelectromechanical transduction element ( 512 ).

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. Square-extensional mode clock signal generation device comprising:
a microelectromechanical resonant element overhanging a surface of a substrate and having, in top view, a square shape and, at each corner of the square shape, a beam arranged perpendicularly to a diagonal of the square shape running through the corner, the ends of each beam being respectively coupled to the substrate by anchorages perpendicular to an axis of the beam; and
four nanoelectromechanical transduction elements arranged perpendicularly to the beams and continuing the diagonals of the square shape, each of the four nanoelectromechanical transduction elements being coupled to one of the beams and further coupled to the substrate by an anchorage.

2. Device according to claim 1 , wherein the square-extensional mode is a bulk square-extensional mode.

3. Device according to claim 1 , wherein the resonant element of planar shape, is parallel to a surface of a substrate.

4. Device according to claim 3 , wherein the resonant element has square-extensional vibration modes parallel to the surface of the substrate.

5. Device according to claim 3 , wherein the resonant element is coupled to the substrate by the transduction element.

6. Device according to claim 3 , wherein the resonant element is further coupled to the substrate by a pillar located, preferably, vertically in line with the center of gravity of the resonant element.

7. Device according to claim 1 , wherein the resonant element has, in top view, a polygonal shape, preferably a parallelogram shape, more preferably a square shape.

8. Device according to claim 1 , comprising a plurality of beams each located in a corner of the resonant element.

9. Device according to claim 1 , wherein the resonant element has a natural frequency in the range from 1 MHz to 100 MHz, preferably in the range from 10 MHz to 100 MHz, more preferably equal to approximately 20 MHz.

10. Device according to claim 1 , wherein the resonant element is, in top view, square-shaped and has:
a side length in the range from 2 μm to 1 mm, preferably equal to approximately 200 μm; and
a thickness in the range from 200 nm to 500 μm, preferably equal to approximately 10 μm.

11. Device according to claim 1 , wherein each transduction element forms a cuboid having:
a length in the range from 500 nm to 100 μm, preferably equal to approximately 5 μm; and
a width in the range from 50 nm to 50 μm, preferably equal to approximately 250 nm; and
a height in the range from 50 nm to 50 μm, preferably equal to approximately 250 nm.

12. Device according to claim 1 , wherein each transduction element is a piezoresistive strain gauge.

13. Device according to claim 1 , wherein the presence of the transduction element(s) causes a modification of the resonance frequency of the device smaller than 5% with respect to a case in which the at least one transduction element is omitted.

14. Electronic circuit comprising at least one device according to claim 1 .

15. Method of manufacturing a device according to claim 1 , comprising a step of:
forming the microelectromechanical resonant element from a first layer; and
forming the nanoelectromechanical transduction element from a second layer,
the second layer having a thickness at least ten times smaller, preferably approximately forty times smaller, than the thickness of the first layer.

Assignees

• Commissariat Energie Atomique

Inventors

• Sansa Perna Marc
• Robert Philippe

Classifications

• H03H2009/0244

  Anchor loss · CPC title

• H03H2009/2442

  Square resonators · CPC title

• H03H9/2436

  Disk resonators · CPC title

• H03H9/02157

  Dimensional parameters, e.g. ratio between two dimension parameters, length, width or thickness · CPC title

• H03H2009/02503

  Breath-like, e.g. Lam? mode, wine-glass mode · CPC title