scholarly journals Piezoelectric MEMS Acoustic Transducer with Electrically-Tunable Resonant Frequency

Micromachines ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
Alessandro Nastro ◽  
Marco Ferrari ◽  
Libor Rufer ◽  
Skandar Basrour ◽  
Vittorio Ferrari

The paper presents a technique to obtain an electrically-tunable matching between the series and parallel resonant frequencies of a piezoelectric MEMS acoustic transducer to increase the effectiveness of acoustic emission/detection in voltage-mode driving and sensing. The piezoelectric MEMS transducer has been fabricated using the PiezoMUMPs technology, and it operates in a plate flexural mode exploiting a 6 × 6 mm doped silicon diaphragm with an aluminum nitride (AlN) piezoelectric layer deposited on top. The piezoelectric layer can be actuated by means of electrodes placed at the edges of the diaphragm above the AlN film. By applying an adjustable bias voltage Vb between two properly-connected electrodes and the doped silicon, the d31 mode in the AlN film has been exploited to electrically induce a planar static compressive or tensile stress in the diaphragm, depending on the sign of Vb, thus shifting its resonant frequency. The working principle has been first validated through an eigenfrequency analysis with an electrically induced prestress by means of 3D finite element modelling in COMSOL Multiphysics®. The first flexural mode of the unstressed diaphragm results at around 5.1 kHz. Then, the piezoelectric MEMS transducer has been experimentally tested in both receiver and transmitter modes. Experimental results have shown that the resonance can be electrically tuned in the range Vb = ±8 V with estimated tuning sensitivities of 8.7 ± 0.5 Hz/V and 7.8 ± 0.9 Hz/V in transmitter and receiver modes, respectively. A matching of the series and parallel resonant frequencies has been experimentally demonstrated in voltage-mode driving and sensing by applying Vb = 0 in transmission and Vb = −1.9 V in receiving, respectively, thereby obtaining the optimal acoustic emission and detection effectiveness at the same operating frequency.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2086 (1) ◽  
pp. 012193
Author(s):  
S V Malokhatko ◽  
E Yu Gusev ◽  
O A Ageev

Abstract The paper presents the results of calculations of the resonant frequency of a multilayer square membrane for ultrasonic microelectromechanical sensors. Various combinations of active layer materials and metal electrodes were taken into account. The dependences of the resonant frequency on the side length of membrane, as well as on the thickness of active piezoelectric layer and metal electrode for SiO2/Ti/ZnO, SiO2/Al/ZnO, SiO2/Ti/PZT and SiO2/Al/PZT structures were ob-tained. According to the calculations, the values of the resonant frequencies are in the ranges of 46.1–498.3 kHz for SiO2/Ti/ZnO; 45.4–477.3 kHz for SiO2/Al/ZnO; 39.4–411.4 kHz for SiO2/Ti/PZT; 38.1–381 kHz for SiO2/Al/PZT. It is shown that the resonant frequency can be increased due to changes in the geometric parameters of the membrane; and the material and dimensions of the piezoelectric layer have the greatest influence. The results of analytical and numerical simulations for particular case of SiO2(1μm)/Ti(1μm)/ZnO(2μm)/Ti(1μm) membrane with a side length of 600 μm are also compared. The obtained results could be used to optimize the design and process technology of microelectrome-chanical ultrasonic sensors.


Micromachines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 892
Author(s):  
Jicong Zhao ◽  
Zheng Zhu ◽  
Haiyan Sun ◽  
Shitao Lv ◽  
Xingyu Wang ◽  
...  

This paper presents a micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) processing technology for Aluminum Nitride (AlN) Lamb-wave resonators (LWRs). Two LWRs with different frequencies of 402.1 MHz and 2.097 GHz by varying the top interdigitated (IDT) periods were designed and fabricated. To avoid the shortcomings of the uncontrollable etching of inactive areas during the releasing process and to improve the fabrication yield, a thermal oxide layer was employed below the platted polysilicon sacrificial layer, which could define the miniaturized release cavities well. In addition, the bottom Mo electrode that was manufactured had a gentle inclination angle, which could contribute to the growth of the high-quality AlN piezoelectric layer above the Mo layer and effectively prevent the device from breaking. The measured results show that the IDT-floating resonators with 12 μm and 2 μm electrode periods exhibit a motional quality factor (Qm) as high as 4382 and 1633. The series resonant frequency (fs)·Qm values can reach as high as 1.76 × 1012 and 3.42 × 1012, respectively. Furthermore, Al is more suitable as the top IDT material of the AlN LWRs than Au, and can contribute to achieving an excellent electrical performances due to the smaller density, smaller thermo-elastic damping (TED), and larger acoustic impedance difference between Al and AlN.


Akustika ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 79-82
Author(s):  
Valery Kirpichnikov ◽  
Lyudmila Drozdova ◽  
Alexei Koscheev ◽  
Ernst Myshinsky

The resonance frequencies of the flexural vibrations, input vibration excitability and acoustic radiation of the homogeneous and perforated plates were investigated. It is established that the average reduction range of the lower resonant frequency of flexural vibrations of the tested plates with the holes virtually coincides with the predictive estimate. The levels of the input vibration excitability of the perforated plate at the lower resonant frequencies exceeded the levels at the corresponding frequencies of the homogeneous plates greater than the calculated value. The levels of resonance acoustic radiation of the perforated plate were significantly less than of the homogeneous one.


2018 ◽  
Vol 279 ◽  
pp. 53-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minoo Kabir ◽  
Hanie Kazari ◽  
Didem Ozevin

Author(s):  
J. Hannsen Su

Abstract Conventional vibration isolation mounts are not as effective as expected on a practical foundation whose resonant frequencies normally are within the bandwidth of interest. In addition, the low frequency enhancement is a characteristic of the passive mounts. Applying inertia actuators to the bottom attachment plate of the conventional mounts overcomes these shortcomings and enhances their performance significantly. This design concept has universal application since it is applicable to any dynamic system. It requires very little power and force capacity, i.e., a small percentage of the disturbance force, from the actuators to be effective for frequencies higher than the resonant frequency of the mount itself. The effectiveness of the proposed mounts for the machinery is demonstrated on the load transmissibility reduction at the foundation support (fixed end) due to disturbance from machinery above mounts. On the other hand, the vibration magnitude reduction of equipment above mounts due to disturbance from the foundation is used for evaluating the equipment isolation effectiveness. There is no stabilty or degradation problem when a number of the passive-active mounts are used on the same foundation. Furthermore, the more of this type of mounts used on a foundation the more effective the vibration suppression and the smaller actuator force requirement for each passive-active mount.


Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Víctor Ruiz-Díez ◽  
Javier Toledo ◽  
Jorge Hernando-García ◽  
Abdallah Ababneh ◽  
Helmut Seidel ◽  
...  

Cantilever resonators based on the roof tile-shaped modes have recently demonstrated their suitability for liquid media monitoring applications. The early studies have shown that certain combinations of dimensions and order of the mode can maximize the Q-factor, what might suggest a competition between two mechanisms of losses with different geometrical dependence. To provide more insight, a comprehensive study of the Q-factor and the resonant frequency of these modes in microcantilever resonators with lengths and widths between 250 and 3000 µm and thicknesses between 10 and 60 µm is presented. These modes can be efficiently excited by a thin piezoelectric AlN film and a properly designed top electrode layout. The electrical and optical characterization of the resonators are performed in liquid media and then their performance is evaluated in terms of quality factor and resonant frequency. A quality factor as high as 140 was measured in isopropanol for a 1000 × 900 × 10 µm3 cantilever oscillating in the 11th order roof tile-shaped mode at 4 MHz; density and viscosity resolutions of 10−6 g/mL and 10−4 mPa·s, respectively are estimated for a geometrically optimized cantilever resonating below 1 MHz.


Author(s):  
Sami Bedra ◽  
Siham Benkouda ◽  
Tarek Fortaki

Purpose – The paper aims to propose an artificial neural network (ANN) in conjunction with spectral domain formulation for fast and accurate determination of the resonant frequency and quality factor of circular microstrip antenna printed on isotropic or anisotropic substrate. This neurospectral approach reduces the problem complexity. Design/methodology/approach – The moment method implemented in the spectral domain provides good accuracy but its computational cost is high due to the evaluation of the slowly decaying integrals and the iterative nature of the solution process. The paper introduces the electromagnetic knowledge combined with ANN in the analysis of circular microstrip antenna on isotropic or uniaxially anisotropic substrate to reduce the complexity of the spectral approach and to minimize the CPU time necessary to obtain the numerical results. Findings – The resonant frequency results obtained from the neural model are in very good agreement with the experimental and theoretical results available in the literature. Finally, numerical results for the substrate anisotropy effect on the resonant frequency, quality factor and radiation pattern are also presented. Originality/value – The paper develops fast and accurate model based on ANN technique to calculate the resonant frequencies and quality factors of circular microstrip antennas. ANN is used to model the relationship between the parameters of the microstrip antenna and the resonant frequencies and quality factors obtained from the spectral domain approach. This relatively simple model allows designers to predict accurately the resonant frequencies and quality factors for a given design without having to develop or run the spectral method codes themselves. The main advantages of the method are: less computing time than the spectral model, results with accuracy equivalent to that of full-wave models and cost effectiveness, since the client can use a simple PC for implementation. Another advantage of the proposed ANN model is that it takes into account the uniaxial anisotropy in the substrate without increasing the network size. This is done by combining ANN with electromagnetic knowledge.


1988 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 689-705 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. E. Moore ◽  
K. Yoshii ◽  
B. N. Christensen

1. The excitable properties of branched cells were measured using a combination of voltage-clamp and frequency-domain techniques. Point impedance functions from either the soma or growth cone of NG-108 cells were curve fitted with a reduced cable model at different membrane potentials to establish kinetic parameters. 2. Transfer impedance functions between the soma and growth cone were measured and simulated with a morphologically determined model. In these experiments the membrane potential was controlled by a single-electrode voltage clamp thus allowing an estimate of transfer functions for any arbitrary input, such as a single synaptic current for differing degrees of tonic synaptic drive. Furthermore, the integration of different regional inputs was evaluated based on the transfer functions between different locations on an individual cell. 3. The activation of an outward steady-state current leads to resonating impedance functions that were used to evaluate the kinetic properties of ionic channels in different regions of branched excitable cells. For simple branching patterns the point and transfer impedances show lower resonant frequencies for active growth cones compared with active somas. 4. More complex branching patterns showed the unexpected result that the voltage-dependent resonant frequency was higher for the growth cone recording than the soma. The presence of a higher resonant frequency when the growth cone is activated does not require more rapid kinetics of the active potassium conductance, since the time constant of the active conductance can be the same in the growth cone and the soma membrane. 5. In conclusion, the resonant frequencies, as well as all other aspects of the impedance functions, are complicated interactions of the detailed branching patterns and active conductances. In general, these interactions are not predictable from a passive electrotonic analysis, especially when the voltage-dependent conductances are distributed throughout the dendritic tree.


1998 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 312-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. S. Smotherman ◽  
P. M. Narins

Smotherman, M. S. and P. M. Narins. Effect of temperature on electrical resonance in leopard frog saccular hair cells. J. Neurophysiol. 79: 312–321, 1998. Leopard frog saccular hair cells exhibit an electrical resonance in response to a depolarizing stimulus that has been proposed to contribute to the tuning properties of the frog sacculus by acting as an electrical band-pass filter. With the whole cell patch-clamp technique, we have investigated the effect of temperature on electrical resonances in isolated saccular hair cells, and we have described the effects of temperature on the currents and channel kinetics underlying electrical resonance. A hair cell's onset resonant frequency in response to a constant depolarizing current pulse increases linearly with temperature at a rate of 11 Hz/1°C, exhibiting a mean Q 10 of 1.7 between 15 and 35°C. However, offset resonant frequencies continue to double every 10°C, exhibiting a mean Q 10 of 2.1. If steady-state voltage during the stimulus is held constant, all oscillatory frequencies increase with a mean Q 10 of 2.1. The average level of steady-state depolarization during a +150-pA depolarizing current pulse decreases with increasing temperature (−6 mV from 15 to 25°C). This temperature-dependent reduction of the steady-state membrane potential causes a shift in the voltage-dependent channel kinetics to slower rates, thus reducing the apparent Q 10 for onset resonant frequencies. The peak outward tail current and net steady-state outward current, which is the sum of a voltage-dependent inward calcium current ( I Ca) and an outward calcium-dependent potassium current ( I K(Ca)), increase with temperature, exhibiting a mean Q 10 of 1.7 between 15 and 25°C. The activation rate ( T 1/2) of the outward current exhibits a mean Q 10 of 2.3 between 15 and 25°C, while the deactivation rate (τrel) exhibits a mean Q 10 of 2.9 over the same temperature range. These results support previous models of the molecular determination of resonant frequency, which have proposed that a combination of I K(Ca) channel kinetics and the overall magnitude of the outward current are primarily responsible for determining the resonant frequency of an isolated hair cell. The robust temperature sensitivity of the hair cell receptor potential contrasts sharply with the temperature-insensitive tuning properties of in vivo saccular nerve fiber recordings. Possible explanations for this discrepancy are discussed.


2008 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai-Yu Xu ◽  
Elias C. Aifantis ◽  
Yong-Hua Yan

Free vibrations of a double-walled carbon nanotube (DWNT) are studied. The inner and outer carbon nanotubes are modeled as two individual elastic beams interacting each other by van der Waals forces. An original method is proposed to calculate the first seven order resonant frequencies and relative vibrational modes. Detailed results are demonstrated for DWNTs according to the different boundary conditions between inner and outer tubes, such as fixed-free, cantilever-free, fixed-simple and fixed-fixed (reduced form) supported ends. Our results indicate that there is a special invariable frequency for a DWNT that is not affected by different combinations of boundary conditions. All vibrational modes of the DWNT must be coaxial when the resonant frequency is smaller than this frequency. Some noncoaxial vibrations will occur when their resonant frequencies exceed the frequency. Especially, the first noncoaxial resonant frequency is still invariable for all different boundary conditions. A change of resonant frequency for various lengths of DWNTs is discussed in detail. In addition, our model predicts a new coaxial-noncoaxial vibrational mode in fixed-simple supports for inner and outer tubes of a DWNT.


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