Temperature insensitive mass sensing of mode selected phononic crystal cavity

Abstract

Phononic crystal cavities with high quality (Q) factors are attractive in both signal processing and sensing applications. In this paper, 2D phononic crystal point defect cavities are fabricated on silicon slabs by micro electromechanical system (MEMS) technologies. An electrode design method is proposed to enhance displacements of the point defect modes. Then the method is applied to design MEMS resonators with different port numbers, among which Q factor as high as 21 300 is obtained in air. Multiport resonators with transmission measurements are proved to be advantageous over one-port resonators with impedance measurements in frequency resolution. A temperature insensitive resonant mass sensor is designed based on a two-port resonator. Two defect modes with strong responses in the two-port resonator are combined to compensate environmental temperature interference. The temperature compensation experiment reveals that temperature interference is effectively compensated from mass measurement and the mass sensitivity of the sensor is 5.4 Hz ng−1. The conclusion of mode selection or sensing mechanism will help to design resonators or sensors with high performances.