CMOS-MEMS Resonators and Their Applications

Sheng-Shian Li
Institute of NanoEngineering and MicroSystems, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Email: ssli@mx.nthu.edu.tw

AbstractThis paper reports on the recent progress of the

high-Q integrated micromechanical resonator, oscillator, and im vo
filter using the CMOS-MEMS technology to enable monolithic RRamp
amp
integration of MEMS and IC. The paper scope covers three
RL
major parts, including (i) the fabrication technologies of the
CMOS-MEMS resonators and their associated circuitry; (ii) the
performance enhancement of the resonators on motional
impedance, quality factor, power handling, thermal stability,
frequency tuning, and parasitic feedthrough; (iii) the SingleChip
implementation of the CMOS-MEMS resonators for frequency
generation (i.e., oscillators) and frequency selection (i.e., filters)
functionalities. In the first part, various fabrication technologies
in the 0.35m and 0.18m CMOS technology nodes are presented,
MEMSResonator CMOSAmplifier
showing their own features and advantages. In the second part,
several strategies in design aspects and material point of views
were proposed to enhance the performance of the CMOS-MEMS
resonators. In the last part, designs and experimental results of Fig. 1: CMOS-MEMS resonator monolithically integrated with its amplifier
circuitry.
the CMOS-MEMS oscillator and filter are presented. We take
full advantage of the IC and semiconductor strength in Taiwan to With such a resonator platform, various configurations of
develop several CMOS-MEMS resonator platforms towards
single-chip implementation for timing reference, oscillator, filter, CMOS-MEMS resonators monolithically integrated with
and sensor applications. circuits have been demonstrated as shown in Fig. 1.
Keywords-CMOS-MEMS; Resonator; Integration; High Q; II. FABRICATION TECHNOLOGIES
Power Handling; Motional Impedance; Thermal Stability;
Frequency Tuning; Feedthrough Cancellation; Oscillator; Filter We have developed several CMOS-MEMS resonator
platforms [3][4][5][6] co-fabricating mechanical resonators
I. INTRODUCTION and their amplifier circuits for MEMS/IC integration. The
platforms can be mainly categorized into two different release
Mechanical resonators are the key element for frequency methods - oxide removal and metal removal maskless post-
control where the high-Q tanks implemented by the resonators CMOS processes, implemented in both 0.35m 2-Poly-4-
form crucial building blocks, including frequency generation, Metal (2P4M) and 0.18m 1-Poly-6-Metal (1P6M) CMOS
frequency selection, and even sensing. Off-chip vibrating technologies. In the following contents, their pros and cons
components, such as quartz and SAW (surface acoustic wave) will be discussed.
devices, have dominated this market for more than fifty years.
However, their bulky size and CMOS incompatibility hinders A. Oxide Removal Release Process in a 0.35m CMOS [3]
the miniaturization of electronic systems and impedes the Fig. 2 presents the cross-section of the 0.35m CMOS
cost-down and integration for portable applications. In order to process, clearly showing its two polysilicon layers and four
reduce size, power consumption, and increase quality factor, metal interconnect layers, respectively, and the fabricated
vibrating micromechanical circuits fabricated using IC- FreeFreeBeam
compatible MEMS technologies have been developed in the Passivation M4
past decade towards the integration with on-chip RF transistor
circuits [1]. However, prior approaches for the CMOS-MEMS M3
1m
integration leads to complexity and compromise of fabrication
M2
processes, impeding the fast cycling time of product 0.5m
development and causing huge barriers for MEMS design M1
houses. As a solution, the foundry-oriented CMOS-MEMS ComeDrive
ILDBPTEOS
platform provides ease of use, fast prototyping, and circuit Poly2
ThinFilmOxide
integrated features for vibrating RF-MEMS applications. Poly1
FOX
As depicted in Fig. 1, this paper reviews several generalized N+ N+ Nwell N+
platforms utilizing the foundry CMOS technologies [2],
showing several unique features, such as ease of use, low cost, PType(100)SiliconSubstrate
fast turnaround time, and innate MEMS-circuit integration. Fig. 2: Chip cross-sectional view and SEM photos of the fabricated resonators
using the oxide removal release process in a 0.35m CMOS technology.

978-1-4799-0342-9/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE 915 2013 Joint UFFC, EFTF and PFM Symposium
 Passivation 0.35mPlatform 0.18mPlatform 0.18mPlatform
PinnedPinned Beam TuningFork FreeFree Beam

Performance Performance Performance

(a) Silicon Substrate

fo=1.45MHz
VP=25V
fo=4.91MHz
VP=20V
fo=15MHz
VP=24V
Q=179 Q=100 Q=857
R m=7.16M Rm=1.17M R m=4.88M
Passivation 90 80 90

Transmission[dB]
85
100 90 100

Circuits 95
110 110
100

120 105 120

(b) Silicon Substrate
Fig. 3: Fabrication process flow for a CMOS-MEMS resonator in a 0.35m
2P4M technology under the oxide removal post process. (a) Chip prepared by
the CMOS foundry. (b) Device is released by a buffer HF solution.
resonators, such as beam and come-drive resonators, can be
seen in the right. The fabrication flow is quite simple as shown
in Fig. 3 where the device can be released in a commercially
available buffer HF solution, Silox Vapox III. Fig. 3(b)
indicates that (i) various resonators, such as in-plane and out-
of-plane versions, and (ii) different combinations of the
structural materials, such as mere metal and metal/oxide
composite, can be realized in this platform to offer more
flexible design options. Note that the minimal electrode-to-
resonator gap spacing is limited by the feature size of the
0.35m CMOS technology node such that the motional
impedance of the fabricated resonators is in several Mdue to
their low electromechanical coupling coefficient.
B. Oxide Removal Release Porcess in a 0.18m CMOS [4]
To address the issue of high motional impedance in section
II.A, we transfer this oxide removal process into a 0.18m
CMOS where the cross-sectional schematic and physical
views are shown in Fig. 4. The electrode-to-resonator gap
spacing is reduced via the minimal feature size of the 0.18m
CMOS (1.8X smaller than the 0.35m CMOS) while the
transducer area can be increased by the 6-metal stacking (4-
metal stacking in the 0.35m CMOS). The combined merit of
the gap and area contributes to much lower motional
impedance as compared to the 0.35m CMOS-MEMS
resonators. Fig. 5 presents the performance comparison
between the 0.35m 2P4M and 0.18m 1P6M platforms,
showing the advanced technology nodes would lower the
motional impedance, reduce the dc-bias voltage, and attain
110
130 115 130
1.40 1.45 1.50 4.70 4.90 5.10 14.90 15.10
Frequency[MHz]
Fig. 5: Performance comparison of the CMOS-MEMS resonators in 0.35m
2P4M and 0.18m 1P6M CMOS-MEMS platforms.
higher resonance frequencies.
C. Metal Removal Release Process in a 0.35m CMOS [5]
Although the oxide removal process only requires one
maskless wet etching step, the metal-rich feature of the
aforementioned resonators places a bottleneck on quality
factor Q since the structural aluminum is often treated as a
high-loss acoustic material. As can be seen in Fig. 5, Q is
lower than 1,000, which is not sufficient for the later oscillator
and filter implementation. To address low-Q issue in the oxide
removal process, we proposed a metal removal post process to
form low-loss oxide-rich resonator structures to enable high Q.
As indicated in Fig. 6, the device was first prepared by the
CMOS foundry using a standard 0.35m 2P4M CMOS
process. Then the etching solution containing H2SO4 and H2O2
was utilized to remove metal layers. This maskless etching
technique provides excellent selectivity between the metal and
dielectric layers; therefore, the issues from time-based etching
in part II.A and II.B can be greatly alleviated. Finally,
Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) was used to remove the
passivation layer for the following wire bonding. Fig. 7
presents a resonator SEM view, an integrated CMOS-MEMS
SiO2RichStacking
Si

0.18mCMOS Resonator Structure

CompositeResonator
M6
VIA5 M5
VIA4 Si
M4 Resonator Circuit
VIA3 M3 Metal
VIA2 0.28m PolySi SiO2
VIA1 M2
Oxide Gap
CO M1
Via Al
SiliconSubstrate
0.6 m
Al Oxide Poly Via Passivation
Surrounding Electrodes Si
Fig. 6: CMOS-MEMS resonator using the metal removal post process in a
Fig. 4: CMOS-MEMS resonator in a 0.18m 1P6M CMOS-MEMS platform.
0.35m 2P4M CMOS-MEMS platform.

916 2013 Joint UFFC, EFTF and PFM Symposium

 Frequency [MHz] M4
VIA3
7.95 8.00 8.05 VIA2
M3
-68.4 M2
VIA1
MEMS MEMS+Circuit M1
-20 CO do Poly2
fo :8.038MHz fo :7.99MHz Poly1
-68.8

Transmission [dB]
Q :NA Q :6,102

Transmission [dB]
IL :69.4dB IL :23.6dB WithoutPullin: do~970nm
-69.2 -40

-69.6 -60
MEMS

-70.0
-80
CommonSetup (I) do=110nm (II) do=210nm (III) do=275nm
VP -70.4
=200V
CMOS
7.95
P=8dBm 8.00 8.05 8.10 8.15
M1~4 VIA1~3&CO Poly1 Poly2 SiO2
100m Frequency [MHz]
Fig. 7: Performance of a 0.35m CMOS-MEMS resonator using the metal Fig. 9: Pull-in gap reduction mechanism implemented in a 0.35m CMOS-
removal post process. MEMS resonator for motional impedance reduction.

system, and their frequency characteristics including the
standalone resonator and MEMS/IC integrated version. Q of
the oxide-rich resonator is greater than 6,000, which is 6X
higher than the metal-rich counterparts in Fig. 5.
D. Metal Removal Release Process in a 0.18m CMOS [6]
The release approach in part II.C has also been transferred
into a 0.18m CMOS node as shown in Fig. 8 to gain the
smaller feature size of the advanced CMOS for low motional
impedance. To fabricate the CMOS-MEMS double-ended-
tuning-fork (DETF) oxide-rich resonator in Fig. 8, chips were
manufactured using a standard TSMC 0.18m 1P6M CMOS
process. Then a metal wet etchant was utilized to remove the
sacrificial metals, hence providing air gap spacing of around
0.53m. Finally, the RIE was utilized to open bond pads.
Fig. 8 also presents a cross-sectional image of the DETF
structure and its measured frequency characteristic, showing Q
greater than 4,800 due to its oxide-rich feature. The achievable
resonance frequency is higher than that of the device in part
II.C (Fig. 5) owing to its smaller gap spacing via the 0.18m
CMOS.
III. MOTIONAL IMPEDANCE
The major bottleneck of the capacitive resonators comes
M6TopElectrode
from the relatively higher motional impedance (often much
larger than 50) due to their low electromechanical coupling
capability which is several orders of magnitude lower than that
of the piezoelectric counterparts. The CMOS-MEMS
resonators inherit such a deficiency where the motional
impedance is typically several M as indicated in Fig. 5 [3][4].
The limit of the electromechanical coupling stems from the
minimum feature size of the CMOS technologies as described
in section II, even if advanced technology nodes are utilized.
Here, we proposed several approaches in design aspects to
greatly reduce the motional impedance of the CMOS-MEMS
resonators without pursuing costly, nm-regime CMOS
processes.
A. Pull-in Gap Reduction Design
Based on the pull-in mechanism of capacitive transducers,
we proposed an effective gap reduction approach [7] in a
standard CMOS-MEMS technology to reduce the electrode-
to-resonator gap spacing without the need of advanced CMOS
nodes, hence providing a cost-effective solution to alleviate
performance degradation using conventional CMOS-MEMS
platforms. With the well-known electrostatic pull-in effect,
various gap-reduction configurations utilizing the existing
layers of the 0.35 m 2P4M CMOS technology have been
demonstrated to achieve deep-submicron gaps, significantly
AirGap lower the motional impedance of the resonators to 100k
(M5, M3,M1) range suitable for oscillator implementation. Using the gap
reduction mechanism depicted in Fig. 9, beam resonators with
gaps of 110nm, 210nm, and 275nm, respectively, have been
successfully demonstrated that achieves comparable electro-

M4, M2Embedded Anchor -50 Performance180

PolyBottom do=275nm
Electrode 135
Transmission [dB]

Electrode -60 VP=60V

Phase [Degree]

10m
VM=0V 90
-70 P=20dBm
fo=11.56MHz 45
FF-Beam -80 Q=1,400 0
Electrode Rm=112k
Meander Stopper
-90 -45
-90
-100 -135
PullInFrame
SiliconSubstrate -110 -180
11.46 11.51 11.56 11.61 11.66
Metal Oxide Poly
Meander Frequency [MHz]
Via/CO P+ /n+
Fig. 8: Fabrication process flow, SEM, and frequency response for a CMOS- Fig. 10: SEMs and measured frequency characteristic of a 0.35m CMOS-
MEMS resonator in a 0.18m 1P6M technology under the metal removal post MEMS resonator under a pull-in gap reduction design to achieve low motional
process. impedance.

917 2013 Joint UFFC, EFTF and PFM Symposium

 16,000

14,000

Quality Factor
12,000 OxideRich Oxide
Oxide
Composite
10,000
9-Res. Array 5-Res. Array Single Res.
fo=10.50MHz fo=10.62MHz fo=10.86MHz 8,000
-65 Q=1,377 Q=1,220 Q=1,919
6,000
Rm=220k Rm=600k Rm=2.23M
Composite Oxide
4,000
Transmission[dB]

-78
2,000

-91 0
2010 2011 2012 2013
Year
-104 Fig. 13: Progress on quality factor of the CMOS-MEMS resonators developed
in our group.

-117
10.35 10.5 10.65
Frequency[MHz]
Fig. 11: Comparison of single resonator and 9-resonator array under the same
motional impedance and input power.
mechanical coupling [2], as shown in Fig. 10, with their non-
CMOS-MEMS counterparts [1].
B. Mechanically-Coupled Array Design
Under the same 0.35m CMOS-MEMS resonator platform,
a mechanically-coupled array design [8] offers an efficient
approach to reduce the motional impedance which is inversely
proportional to the number of the constituent resonators in an
array device. More resonators mechanically coupled as an
array, the smaller motional impedance. Since the coupled
array becomes a multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical system,
a high-velocity coupling scheme was used to accentuate the
desired mode shape and reject the spurious modes. As shown
in Fig. 11, the proposed 9-resonator and 5-resonator arrays [8]
have been experimentally characterized to have 10.1X and
3.7X smaller motional impedances, respectively, as compared
to a single resonator. In addition, the resonator array is
benefitted from the large transduction area to effectively
reduce the required dc-bias voltage while maintaining
reasonable motional impedance.
IV. QUALITY FACTOR
-70
-60
-75 Vacuum
Transmission [dB]
Transmission [dB]
As compared to the single-crystal or polysilicon based
10.8 10.95 11.1
MEMS resonators, Q of the CMOS-MEMS resonators
becomes a main issue to be used in timing reference and
wireless applications. Due to the lossy nature of the metal
materials in the CMOS back-end-of-line (BEOF)
configuration, CMOS-MEMS metal-rich composite resonators
often suffer Q limited to 1,000 as indicated in Fig. 5. We have
proposed several approaches to resolve this bottleneck.
A. Nodal Support Design
Q in MEMS resonators is often dominated by the support
loss once they are operated in vacuum and the thermal elastic
damping is avoided by the designed frequencies. We have
adopted a nodal support design [8][9] to effectively isolate the
vibrating energy of the resonant structure from its anchors,
thus verifying Q of the nodal support design is two orders of
magnitude higher than that of the conventional designs [7].
B. Oxide-Rich Design
In addition to the nodal support design, material loss also
plays a significant role on resonator Q. A simple way to
overcome this structural loss is to increase the constituent ratio
of the SiO2 (i.e., low-loss material) inside the resonator, thus
enabling high Q. We took advantage of the metal removal post
process described in section II.C and II.D to form oxide-rich
resonators since SiO2 is treated as high-Q structural material.
The oxide-rich CMOS-MEMS resonators [5][6] in Fig. 7 and
Fig. 8 feature 3-4X higher Q than that of the metal-rich
versions in Fig. 5. Please note the flexural-mode vibration now
becomes the limiting factor once the oxide constituent ratio is
Performance maximized.
fo=~5MHz
VP=75V C. Bulk-Mode Design

Air P=-10dBm
-80 Q=10,920 -70
-85 To further boost Q of the CMOS-MEMS resonators, the
-90 -80 flexural-mode design can be switched into a bulk-mode
-95
-90
vibration. Fig. 12 presents the measured frequency
-100 0.25mA/0.363mW
Q:10,920 Q > 15,000 characteristics of Lame-mode [10] and dog-bone like [11]
-105 Qair:6,780
-110 -100 CMOS-MEMS resonators with Q greater than 10,000,
47.92 47.94 47.96 47.98 48 5.01 5.012 5.014
(a) Frequency [MHz] (b) Frequency [MHz]
indicating the high-Q nature of the bulk-mode resonators.
Fig. 12: (a) Lame-mode and (b) longitudinal-mode CMOS-MEMS resonators
With proper structural materials and resonator designs, we
feature Q > 10,000, verifying high Q of bulk-mode designs.

918 2013 Joint UFFC, EFTF and PFM Symposium

 5000 OxideRich
-65 Conditions SingleRes. DETF
Rm=200k +63ppm/K Oxide: 78.3%
-70 0
PNA=+5dBm
-75
-5000
Transmission[dB]

f/fo [ppm]
Composite
-80 FFBeam

-10000 59.7ppm/K Oxide: 38%

-85

-90 -15000

-95 9Res.Array Meremetal

-20000 FFBeam
-100 358ppm/K Oxide: 0%
-25000
-105
290 300 310 320 330 340 350
0.99 0.995 1 1.005 1.01
NormalizedFrequency[MHz/MHz]
Temperature [K]
Fig. 16: Temperature coefficient of frequency in CMOS-MEMS resonators can
Fig. 14: Comparison of the single resonator and 9-resonator array under the
be adjusted by the constituent ratio of SiO2.
same motional impedance and input power.

have proved Q of the CMOS-MEMS resonators is comparable VI. THERMAL STABILITY

to the silicon-based resonators.
Fig. 13 finally presents the progress on quality factor of our
proposed CMOS-MEMS resonators in the past four years. As
can be seen, Q greater 10,000 has been realized by the
combination of the nodal support design, oxide-rich structural
material, and bulk-mode operation, thus greatly benefiting the
future oscillator and filter applications.
V. POWER HANDLING AND LINEARITY
Upon high input power levels, capacitive resonators often
suffer the Duffing nonlinearity resulted from both capacitive
and mechanical nonlinearities, hence degrading output power
and phase noise performance of oscillators implemented using
those resonators. The mechanically-coupled array design [8]
described in section III.B not only reduces their motional
impedance but greatly enhances the power handling capability
since the effective stiffness of the N-resonator array ideally is
N times higher than that of a single resonator, thus
contributing N times larger power handling ability. Fig. 14
presents the frequency characteristics of single resonator and
9-resonator array designs under the same input power, where
the former falls into the nonlinear regime while the later still
preserves the linear vibration with a symmetrical frequency
response and high Q.
Mere-Metal Resonator Metal-Rich Resonator
(a) Oxide: 0%
(b)
Oxide~39.6%
Beam
VIA2 M3
M4
Support VIA1 M1
Fig. 15: (a) mere-metal, (b) metal-rich composite, and (c) oxide-rich composite
structures of CMOS-MEMS resonators to modulate TCf.
A. Passive Temperature Compensation
The CMOS-MEMS resonators mostly composed of metals
are sensitive to temperature variation due to the very negative
temperature coefficients of Youngs modulus (TCEs) of their
constituent metal materials. To improve the thermal stability
of those CMOS-MEMS resonators, the silicon-dioxide (SiO2)
in the CMOS back-end-of-lone (BEOL) process with positive
TCE offers a simple passive temperature compensation
scheme where metal-oxide composite structures can be
utilized to build resonators capable of improving their thermal
stability [3]. For example, the oxide constituent ratio of the
CMOS-MEMS resonators can be adjusted as indicated in
Fig. 15 where the mere-metal, metal-rich, and oxide-rich
structures would lead to very negative, slightly negative, and
very positive temperature coefficients of frequency (TCfs).
Fig. 16 presents the comparison of fractional frequency
change versus temperature measurements for mere-metal,
metal-rich composite, and oxide-rich composite beam
resonators, verifying our design concept in Fig. 15 and
indicating the near-zero TCf is plausible once the ratio between
SiO2 and metal is optimized. Thus, the use of SiO2 as part of
the composite structures in CMOS-MEMS resonators brings
an easy and effective temperature compensation scheme [2].
B. Active Temperature Compensation
Oxide-Rich Resonator
To further enhance the thermal stability of the CMOS-
MEMS resonators down to ppm level, a constant-resistance
control [12] was implemented as a low-cost active
compensation scheme with which TCf of the CMOS-MEMS
resonators was dramatically improved with a record-low value,
(c) -12.5 ppm/K [11], to date among any CMOS-MEMS
Oxide> 76%
M4
resonators. Note that the polysilicon layers from the CMOS
M2 BEOL process are embedded inside the proposed resonator
M2
structures, serving as the key element for the constant-resistant
control.

919 2013 Joint UFFC, EFTF and PFM Symposium

 -50 11.6
VM=4V
SustainingAmplifier

Res. Frequency, fo [MHz]

-60 VM=0V VM=60V 1,500
Transmission [dB]

11.58

Quality Factor, Q
-70 4.734 dB
1,000 11.56
Output
-80
11.54
Amp
-90
500
Totalf tuning 11.52
-100 =56.5kHz
-110 0 11.5
11.49 11.53 11.57 11.61 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Positive Feedback
(a) Frequency [MHz] (b) Modulated Voltage VM [V]
Lx Cx Rx
Fig. 17: (a) Frequency tuning capability and (b) steady Q under different
modulated voltages.
(a) MEMSResonator
VII. FREQUENCY TUNING 20 Performance
With enhanced TCf through the use of both the passive and 30 InAir,Q~150 fo=1.17 MHz

PhaseNoise[dBc/Hz]
active temperature compensation approaches mentioned in 40 VP=65V
section VI, the CMOS-MEMS resonators simply demand a 50 Q~2000
linear frequency tuning mechanism with low cost and low 60 Vdrive=132mV
power consumption for final temperature compensation. In the 70
high-end applications, frequency tuning capability is 80
90 1/f3
necessitated. On the other hand, initial frequency trimming of
batch-fabricated resonators is also of great importance for 100
commercialization. The resonance frequency of capacitive- 110
type MEMS resonators can be tuned via their dc-bias voltages (b) OffsetFrequency[kHz]
through the electrical stiffness; however, the change of
Fig. 19: (a) Closed-loop oscillation and (b) phase noise performance of a
motional impedance as well as the parabolic relationship CMOS-MEMS oscillator.
between the bias voltage and frequency makes such a post-
fabrication trimming technique not suitable for real since the resonance behavior (i.e., the motional current) is
implementation. To solve this issue, we proposed a quasi- often masked by the feedthrough signals. Therefore, similar
linear frequency tuning via the adjustment of an independent concept has been implemented in capacitive resonators to
bias voltage [2] without consuming any dc power, showing cancel the feedthroughs. A CMOS-MEMS ring resonator
5,000 ppm tuning range and sensitivity of 83.3 ppm/V, as featuring differential-mode of mechanical operation was
shown in Fig. 17(a). In addition, such resonators under integrated with a fully-differential transimpedance amplifier as
frequency tuning operation still preserve steady quality factor shown in Fig. 18, demonstrating a clear resonance behavior
Q with very limited influence on motional impedance as where the transmission amplitude is quite symmetric without
shown in Fig. 17(b), hence ensuring stable resonant anti-resonance while its phase is cross 0 at resonance [13].
performance suited for future oscillator and time-keeping With the fully-differential configuration applied both on
applications. MEMS and IC, Barkhausen criteria can be easily fulfilled for
oscillator implementation.
VIII. FEEDTHROUGH
The differential pair of CMOS amplifiers is often used to IX. OSCILLATOR IMPLEMENTATION
remove the common-mode noise and to preserve correct After addressing the bottlenecks and proposing solutions to
transmission and phase even with the presence of the parasitic enhance performance of the CMOS-MEMS resonators, the
capacitances. The weak electromechanical coupling makes the oscillator implementation is of great importance for timing
capacitive resonators very sensitive to parasitic feedthroughs and frequency synthesizing applications. As depicted in
Fig. 19(a), the micromechanical resonator and its sustaining
vo+
iout- amplifier can form a closed loop to ensue oscillation once
TIA
Barkhausen criteria (loop gain >1 and loop phase = 0) are
vo-
iout+ satisfied. In our group, a single-chip CMOS-MEMS oscillator
0
Phase
100
has been successfully demonstrated in vacuum, exhibiting the
phase noise performance, as shown in Fig. 19(b), is
10
Transmission[dB]

PNA= -10 dBm

50
20 VP= 35V
Degree

Q= 1125
30 fo = 1.39 MHz 0 comparable to the silicon-based oscillators. Even in air (i.e.,
vin+ 40
50 large squeeze film damping), the oscillator was still functional,
vin- VP 50

60
Gain
100 indicating the great potential to be used in gas, chemical, and
(a) (b) 1.34 1.36 1.38
Frequency [MHz]
1.4 1.42 1.44
mass sensing application based on frequency-shift mechanism.
Fig. 18: (a) Fully-differential CMOS-MEMS circuit and (b) its measured The abovementioned approaches to improve quality factor and
frequency characteristic.

920 2013 Joint UFFC, EFTF and PFM Symposium


Transmission
1st Mode
(a)
Coupler Pull-in Frame
Transmission (dB)
-100
(b) Beam-Array Resonator -120
(c)
Fig. 20: (a) Simulated filter modes, (b) SEM view, and (c) un-terminated and
terminated frequency response of a mechanically coupled CMOS-MEMS filter.
power handling of the CMOS-MEMS resonators would
benefit the close-to-carrier and far-from-carrier phase noise
performance, respectively, of the implemented oscillators. In
addition, the reduction of the motional impedance described in
section III would lead to the overall phase noise reduction for
the CMOS-MEMS integrated oscillators.
X. FILTER IMPLEMENTATION
Another significant building block for frequency control and
wireless communication is the frequency selection element.
The developed CMOS-MEMS resonators can serve as the
fundamental elements for bandpass filters. Since the resonance
frequency of the CMOS-MEMS resonators is limited, it is best
to be used in sensors front-end with much lower operation
frequencies. Fig. 20 presents a CMOS-MEMS filter composed
of two CMOS-MEMS resonator arrays mechanically coupled
through a quarter-wavelength mechanical link to enable a
narrow-bandwidth bandpass filter for channel selection [14].
The in-phase and out-of-phase filter modes shown in Fig. 20(a)
form the passband of a filter. The fabrication is the same as the
CMOS-MEMS resonators in section II.A and the SEM view
of the fabricated filter is shown in Fig. 20(b). After filter
termination, a flat passband and real insertion loss can be
obtained as shown in Fig. 20(c).
XI. CONCLUSIONS
In the past few years, the CMOS-MEMS technology has
been thoroughly explored and implemented in vibrating
MEMS applications. The CMOS-MEMS resonator fabrication
platforms bring low cost, batch production, fast turnaround
time, and MEMS/IC integration to the resonator applications.
Most of the bottlenecks in CMOS-MEMS resonators,
including motional impedance, quality factor, power
handling/linearity, thermal stability, frequency tuning, and
feedthrough issues, have been addressed using various design
and material strategies. In addition, the oscillator and filter
implementation is also covered in this paper. This technology
is expected to pave a way to realize fully-integrated high-
performance CMOS-MEMS oscillators and filters which
would benefit future single-chip transceivers for wireless
communications.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
2nd Mode This work was supported by the National Science Council
f
0
Terminated of Taiwan under grant of NSC-101-2628-E-007-008-MY2 and
-20 the Toward World-Class University Project. The authors also
-40 Performance wish to thank the TSMC and National Chip Implementation
f0 = 8.08 MHz
-60
BW = 58 kHz Center (CIC), Taiwan, for supporting the IC Manufacturing.
-80 REFERENCES
Performance
Unterminated f0 = 8.08 MHz
BW = 53 kHz
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8 8.05 8.1 8.15
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921 2013 Joint UFFC, EFTF and PFM Symposium