Vibrator, oscillator, electronic apparatus, moving object, and method of manufacturing vibrator

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9154109-B2
Application number	US-201314132475-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 18, 2013
Priority date	Dec 27, 2012
Publication date	Oct 6, 2015
Grant date	Oct 6, 2015

Abstract

An MEMS vibrator includes a substrate, a fixation section disposed above a principal surface of the substrate, a support section extending from the fixation section, and a vibrating body (an upper electrode) separated from the substrate and supported by the support section in a node part of a vibration, and the vibrating body is a 2n-fold rotationally symmetric body having 2n beams radially extending from a node part of a vibration, wherein n is a natural number.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vibrator comprising:
a substrate;
a lower electrode disposed above a principal surface of the substrate;
a fixation section disposed above the principal surface of the substrate;
a support section extending from the fixation section; and
an upper electrode supported by the support section so as to be separated from the substrate,
wherein the upper electrode is a vibrating body having an area overlapping the lower electrode in a plan view of the substrate,
the support section is connected to a node part of a vibration provided to the upper electrode as the vibrating body, and
the upper electrode is a 2n-fold rotationally symmetric body having 2n beams extending from the node part of the vibration, wherein n is a natural number.

2. The vibrator according to claim 1 , wherein
an area of the lower electrode overlapping the upper electrode in the plan view of the substrate has a shape of a 2n-fold rotationally symmetric body.

3. The vibrator according to claim 2 , wherein
the lower electrode has a dummy slit so that the area of the lower electrode overlapping the upper electrode in the plan view of the substrate has a shape of the 2n-fold rotationally symmetric body.

4. A method of manufacturing a vibrator, comprising:
stacking a first conductive material layer on a principal surface of a substrate;
shaping the first conductive material layer to form a lower electrode;
stacking a sacrifice layer so as to overlap the lower electrode;
shaping the sacrifice layer to form an opening section adapted to expose at least a part of the lower electrode;
stacking a second conductive material layer so as to overlap the sacrifice layer and the opening section;
shaping the second conductive material layer to form an upper electrode as a vibrating body having an area overlapping the lower electrode in a plan view of the substrate, a fixation section having an area overlapping the opening section, and a support section extending from the fixation section and connected to a central part of the upper electrode; and
removing the sacrifice layer by etching,
wherein in the shaping of the second conductive material layer, the upper electrode is formed to have a shape of a 2n-fold rotationally symmetric body having 2n beams extending from a central part of the upper electrode, wherein n is a natural number, and
in the shaping of the first conductive material layer, the lower electrode is formed in advance so that an area of the lower electrode overlapping the upper electrode becomes a 2n-fold rotationally symmetric body in a plan view of the substrate after performing the shaping of the second conductive material layer.

5. An oscillator comprising: the vibrator according to claim 1 .

6. An electronic apparatus comprising: the vibrator according to claim 1 .

7. A moving object comprising: the vibrator according to claim 1 .

Assignees

• Seiko Epson Corp

Inventors

• Inaba Shogo
• Yamada Akinori
• Yajima Aritsugu

Classifications

• Y10T29/49117

  Conductor or circuit manufacturing · CPC title

• H03H3/0072

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

• H03H9/2405 Primary

  of microelectro-mechanical resonators · CPC title