Polycrystalline Diamond Micromechanical Resonators with Nanometer Dimensions

This paper reports the fabrication technology and testing of polycrystalline diamond (poly-C) mechanical resonators with dimensions as small as 100 nm for the first time. The fabricated structures include cantilever structures patterned using electron beam lithography to have widths of 100 nm, and torsional paddle resonators with a support beam width of 0.5 mum, which sustained a proof mass around 6.16 times 10^-13 Kg. The performance of these structures shows resonant frequencies and quality factor (Q) values in the range of 23 KHz-805 KHz and 9,580-103,600 respectively. The structures were tested using piezoelectric actuation and light interferometer detection techniques. Torsional resonators were fabricated from different poly-C films in order to study the influence of the poly-C film in the resonator Q.