Ovenized high frequency oscillators based on aluminum nitride contour-mode MEMS resonators

This paper reports on the design, simulation, fabrication and characterization of the first micro-ovenized Aluminum Nitride (AlN) Lateral Field Excited - Floating (LFE-F) Contour-Mode Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System (MEMS) resonators (CMR) operating between 250 MHz and 1.11 GHz. The ovenized devices exhibited high quality factors (Q up to 1,550 @ 1.1 GHz) and k_t² (up to 0.6% @ 1.1 GHz). A heater power consumption lower than 5 mW for a 100 °C temperature increase and a thermal time constant in the hundreds of μs range were recorded for these devices. As a proof of concept, an ovenized 590 MHz oscillator with good phase noise performance was also demonstrated.