Electromechanical resonator with resonant anchor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8947176-B2
Application number	US-201013375627-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 7, 2010
Priority date	Jun 9, 2009
Publication date	Feb 3, 2015
Grant date	Feb 3, 2015

Abstract

An electromechanical resonator produced on a substrate, and a method of producing thereof, including: a suspended structure produced at least partly from the substrate, configured to have a vibration imparted to it such that it resonates at least one natural resonance frequency of the suspended structure; an anchor structure to anchor the suspended structure, by at least one area of its periphery, to the remainder of the substrate, and dimensioned to resonate at the resonance frequency; a mechanism to excite the suspended structure, to cause it to vibrate at the resonance frequency; and a mechanism to detect the vibration frequency of the suspended structure.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An electromechanical resonator produced on a substrate, comprising:
a suspended structure produced at least partly from a layer of the substrate, configured to be vibrated to resonate in Lamé mode or in wine-glass mode at at least one natural resonance frequency of the suspended structure;
an anchor structure to anchor the suspended structure, by at least one area of its periphery, to a remainder of the substrate, wherein the anchor structure is dimensioned to resonate at the resonance frequency, or at a frequency that is a multiple of the resonance frequency;
means for exciting the suspended structure, to cause it to vibrate at the resonance frequency; and
means for detecting the vibration frequency of the suspended structure, wherein
the anchor structure includes at least one T-shaped element formed from the layer of the substrate as a first fixed-fixed beam, which resonates at the resonance frequency, or at the frequency that is a multiple of the resonance frequency, and a second beam, a first end of which is coupled with the first beam, and a second end of which is coupled with the suspended structure, and wherein
the first end of the second beam is coupled with the first beam at a node of vibration of the first beam, and the second end of the second beam is coupled with the suspended structure at a nodal point of the suspended structure.

2. An electromechanical resonator according to claim 1 , in which the suspended structure is a structure chosen from among a disk, a square plate, a rectangular plate, a ring, and an ellipse.

3. An electromechanical resonator according to claim 2 , in which the suspended structure is a disk or an ellipse resonating in its wine-glass mode.

4. An electromechanical resonator according to claim 2 , in which the suspended structure is a square or rectangular plate resonating in its Lamé mode.

5. An electromechanical resonator according to claim 1 , in which the length of the second beam is between 0 and half the length of the first beam.

6. A method of manufacture of an electromechanical resonator according to claim 1 , configured to operate at a given resonance frequency, the method comprising:
selecting a shape of the suspended structure;
selecting dimensions of the suspended structure so that one of its natural modes is the given resonance frequency;
selecting a shape and position of the anchor structure configured to resonate at the given resonance frequency;
modelling the suspended structure and the anchor structure, to determine dimensions of the anchor structure considered, so that both the structures may resonate at the same frequency; and
manufacturing the resonator using the data supplied in the previous selecting and modelling.

Assignees

• Hentz Sebastien
• Arcamone Julien
• Commissariat L Energie Atomique Et Aux Energies Alternatives

Inventors

• Hentz Sebastien
• Arcamone Julien

Classifications

• H03H9/2436

  Disk resonators · CPC title

• H03H9/02338 Primary

  Suspension means · CPC title

• H03H3/0072

  of microelectro-mechanical resonators or networks (micromembranes or microbeams B81B2203/01; manufacture of microstructural devices in general B81C) · CPC title

• H03H2009/2442

  Square resonators · CPC title

• H03H2009/02503

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