Record Setting Silicon Resonator Reaches 4.51 GHz

bibekpaudel brings news that researchers from Cornell University have developed a very small silicon microresonator that vibrates at the highest frequency ever recorded for such a device: 4.51 GHz. Typical quartz-crystal oscillators, commonly used in electronics as clock signals, are about a millimeter wide and operate in the KHz - MHz range. The newly developed microresonator measures 8.5 micrometers long and 40 micrometers wide, making it ideal for use in smaller circuits and microprocessing. Quoting: "One of the advantages of silicon microresonators is that they can be integrated directly into microchips using conventional manufacturing techniques, making them cheaper to produce and easier to fabricate small. Also, multiple resonators of different frequencies could be put on the same chip, says Ville Kaajakari, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Louisiana Tech University. In a cell phone, for example, high-frequency resonators could filter out interference from other sources of radio signals."

Comments

Neat

[tsa]

That is a fine piece of microengineering they show there! I'm impressed. I have one question, however: in the article it says: The Q factor for the Cornell device at 4.51 gigahertz is close to 10,000, which compares well with quartz resonators. Does that mean that although the frequency at which the device vibrates is higher than quarts, the accuracy is about the same?

And it's mechanical

[Animats]

Mechanical vibrations at 4.5GHz. Just think about that for a moment. A tiny piece of silicon, like a little tuning fork, wiggling back and forth 4,500,000,000 times every second. Without breaking or wearing out. It's not just electrons moving; this is a solid piece of material vibrating.

Re:And it's mechanical

[Jeff DeMaagd]

Some of the macroscopic things that we understand almost intuitively don't hold very well in the micro world. For example, DLP projection uses mirrors that twist on a sliver of aluminum hundreds of times a second, but they're reliable for many billions of actuations.

The rules change at small scales

[Animats]

That's true. I was once talking to one of the first designers of ink-jet printers at HP, and he mentioned that intuition about fluid behavior totally fails at that scale. They had to do simulations that modeled the interatomic forces to make inkjets work well.