Clark T.-C. Nguyen (Advisor)

This project seeks to characterize and de-mystify mechanisms behind long-term drift in MEMS-based oscillators, including ones employing various sustaining amplifiers and referenced to resonators constructed in a variety of materials, including silicon, polysilicon, AlN, diamond, and ruthenium. A measurement apparatus that suppresses unwanted sources of drift, e.g., temperature, to better focus on resonator and oscillator long-term drift will be instrumental to success and will likely entail the use of double or triple ovens, as well as environment resistant circuit design.

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Recent MEMS process advancements from our group have enabled a class of low-temperature, thin-film ruthenium RF filters that can be processed directly on top of CMOS wafers. This work seeks to demonstrate the first low-IF receiver with fully-integrated MEMS-based RF channel-select filters, which permits low power applications in high-sensitivity, narrow-band software-defined communications and cognitive radio.

Project currently funded by: Member Fees