Fully-differential AlN-on-Si wine glass mode resonator for enhanced characterization in water

Abid Ali*, Joshua E.-Y. Lee

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary WorksRGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication)peer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this work, we present a fully-differential wine-glass (WG) mode MEMS resonator fabricated in thin film Aluminum Nitride (AlN) on Silicon (Si) MEMS technology for resonant sensing applications in liquids. Our finite element (FE) simulations show that the strain fields associated with this mode are well suited for fully-differential piezoelectric transduction. We experimentally demonstrate that the WG mode consequently possesses strong electromechanical coupling. We have also measured the highest quality factor in water among various contour mode resonators yet with a value of 360. But the notably high dielectric constant of liquids like water introduces a large amount of feedthrough in the electrical characterization of the resonators. To this end, we show that the fully-differential configuration is highly effective in reduction feedthrough. The simultaneous enhancement of the resonant signal and reduction in background using the WG mode allows us to achieve a signal to background ratio (SBR) of 15 dB.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of IEEE Sensors
PublisherIEEE
ISBN (Print)9781479982875
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Jan 2017
Event15th IEEE Sensors Conference, SENSORS 2016 - Orlando, United States
Duration: 30 Oct 20162 Nov 2016

Publication series

Name
ISSN (Print)1930-0395
ISSN (Electronic)2168-9229

Conference

Conference15th IEEE Sensors Conference, SENSORS 2016
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityOrlando
Period30/10/162/11/16

Research Keywords

  • AN thin film
  • feedthrough
  • MEMS resonator
  • piezoelectric-on-silicon
  • viscous damping

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