Karen Vaughn with Prof. Mehran Mehregany (Dept. of EECS)

MEMS Resonators for High-Temperature Applications

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) resonators are used in a variety of devices to act as a frequency reference, and, in some applications, frequency stability is required for temperatures well above 300°C.  It is hypothesized that silicon carbide (SiC) resonators would perform better under such conditions than would polysilicon resonators.  To test this, a few different MEMS resonator geometries will be designed and fabricated using both polysilicon and silicon carbide.  Various physical properties of these resonators will then be characterized, with emphasis on their frequency stability as a function of temperature.  The polysilicon and SiC versions of each resonator geometry will then be compared to determine the possible advantages of SiC in high-temperature applications.