Detecting response of microelectromechanical resonators by microwave reflectometry

Abstract

Microwave reflectometry is proposed as an effective technique to detect the vibration of capacitively transduced microelectromechanical resonators. The transducer capacitor is probed by an incident wave, which is reflected being modulated by the time variations of the resonator displacement. Calculations demonstrate that the sensitivity of the technique is maximum for a given microwave frequency depending on the transducer total capacitance. Experimental data show that capacitance variations as low as 3 zF/√Hz are measurable at 4 GHz for the studied devices. Such a performance corresponds to a sub-picometer resolution in vibration amplitude of the microelectromechanical resonator. The measurement technique is particularly appropriate for resonant sensors when high signal-to-noise ratio and fully electrical detection are required. It can be used for device resonance frequency up to several hundreds of MHz.