RF Micro Electro Mechanical (MEM) resonators, with quality factors (Q) often exceeding 10,000, have seen several success stories spanning communication, industrial, and automotive applications. Despite the maturity of the RF MEMS field, intimate integration with ICs has not been possible due to complexity and cost of integration and large disparity between sizes of MEMS devices and integrated circuit (IC) transistors. The proposed 5-year program exploring multi-GHz MEMS resonators using electromechanical transduction with IC transistors will help overcome these obstacles.
Intellectual Merits: Fundamental innovation in resonator design using this transduction will enable scaled, monolithically integrated RF MEMS devices with performance rivaling their off-chip counterparts at previously unattainable frequencies. Active transduction mechanisms in MEMS resonators leveraging IC technology for high transducer efficiency with high-gain, high-fT transistors will be investigated. Actively transduced resonators will be implemented in a Single Transistor Radio (STaR) and RF front-end filters. These system demonstrations require innovation in circuit design to harness the benefits of active transducers in resonators with entirely new topologies.
Broader Impacts: This research plan is merged cohesively with an education and outreach objective targeting K-12 and undergraduate students to increase awareness and understanding of MEMS and Electrical Engineering. Hands-on MEMS demonstrations through local events (e.g. Cambridge Science Festival and MIT Women's Technology Program) will supplement web-based demonstrations and tutorials of the MEMS-based radio systems developed through this program. This work will also serve in the development of a grad/undergrad MEMS course, introducing fundamentals of the proposed transducers and MEMS resonators into the curriculum.
