Pulsed Digital Oscillators for Electrostatic MEMS

Author

Gorreta, Sergi ; Fernàndez, Daniel ; Blokhina, Elena ; Pons-Nin, Joan ; Jiménez, Vicente ; O´Connell, Diarmuid ; Feely, Orla ; Madrenas, Jordi ; Domínguez, Manuel

Author_Institution

Electron. Eng. Dept., Univ. Politec. de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

Volume

59

Issue

12

fYear

2012

Firstpage

2835

Lastpage

2845

Abstract

This paper introduces a new actuation scheme for implementing Pulsed Digital Oscillators (PDOs) for electrostatic MEMS resonators. In this scheme, the capacitance of the device is biased with a voltage and it is periodically sampled. Short pulses of zero voltage are applied depending on the decisions taken by the oscillator loop. The paper discusses in detail the implementation of such electrostatic PDO (e-PDO) through a prototype and links the e-PDO to the conventional PDO theory. As an example, it is shown that with this actuation scheme it is possible to excite different resonances of the mechanical structure simply by changing the parameters of the feedback filter of the oscillator.

Keywords

electrostatic devices; feedback oscillators; micromechanical resonators; actuation scheme; device capacitance; e-PDO; electrostatic MEMS resonators; electrostatic PDO; mechanical structure; oscillator feedback filter; pulsed digital oscillators; zero voltage short pulses; Electrostatics; Micromechanical devices; Oscillators; Resonant frequency; Sensors; Topology; Electrostatic actuation; microelectromechanical systems (MEMS); oscillators;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1549-8328

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TCSI.2012.2206459

Filename

6248713