Digitally-specified micromechanical displacement amplifiers

Abstract

A micromechanical displacement amplifier comprising two asymmetric resonator array composites coupled by a quarter-wavelength beam has been demonstrated that permits specification of gain factor by mere (digital) selection of an appropriate ratio of the number of resonators in an input array to that in an output array. Like the method of [1], this displacement gain circuit is a key enabler for resoswitch-based mechanical power amplifiers and power converters, because it can prevent unwanted drive electrode-to-resonator impact in such circuits. This design, however, differs from that of [1] in that 1) it can be applied to radial-contour mode disks that can achieve much higher frequency than the wine-glass disks of [1]; 2) it preserves the frequency and Q of its constituent resonators (whereas the method of [1] changed the frequency and lowered the Q); and 3) its digital method for gain specification is much more straightforward, accurate, and repeatable. ©2009 IEEE.