Abstract
Advances in micro- and nanofabrication technologies have enabled the development of novel micro- and nanomechanical resonators which have attracted significant attention due to their fascinating physical properties and growing potential applications. In this review, we have presented a brief overview of the resonance behavior and frequency tuning principles by varying either the mass or the stiffness of resonators. The progress in micro- and nanomechanical resonators using the tuning electrode, tuning fork, and suspended channel structures and made of graphene have been reviewed. We have also highlighted some major influencing factors such as large-amplitude effect, surface effect and fluid effect on the performances of resonators. More specifically, we have addressed the effects of axial stress/strain, residual surface stress and adsorption-induced surface stress on the sensing and detection applications and discussed the current challenges. We have significantly focused on the active and passive frequency tuning methods and techniques for micro- and nanomechanical resonator applications. On one hand, we have comprehensively evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy, including active methods such as electrothermal, electrostatic, piezoelectrical, dielectric, magnetomotive, photothermal, mode-coupling as well as tension-based tuning mechanisms, and passive techniques such as post-fabrication and post-packaging tuning processes. On the other hand, the tuning capability and challenges to integrate reliable and customizable frequency tuning methods have been addressed. We have additionally concluded with a discussion of important future directions for further tunable micro- and nanomechanical resonators.
Highlights
With the rapid advance of the micro- and nanotechnologies in micro/nano-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS), more and more micro- and nanomechanical resonators have been developed, which are of interest to both the scientific community and engineering fields due to their significant advantages such as small size, compactness, high sensitivity, high resolution, low power consumption and low cost, and high quality factor [1,2,3,4,5]
Due to their small sizes, micro- and nanomechanical resonators can oscillate at very high resonant frequencies, which provides them with a remarkable ability to perform both sensing and detection in advanced technological applications, including ultrasensitive mass and force sensing, ultralow-power radio frequency (RF) signal generation and timing, chemical and biological sensing, cooling, environmental control, and quantum measurement [6,7,8,9,10,11,12]
Since micro- and nanomechanical resonators are characterized by a large surface-to-volume ratio, it is demonstrated that the surface phenomena plays a significant role on the resonance behavior and the sensing or actuating performance of the devices [23,24]
Summary
With the rapid advance of the micro- and nanotechnologies in micro/nano-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS), more and more micro- and nanomechanical resonators have been developed, which are of interest to both the scientific community and engineering fields due to their significant advantages such as small size, compactness, high sensitivity, high resolution, low power consumption and low cost, and high quality factor [1,2,3,4,5]. The purpose of this review is to present the current state-of-the-art in the development of frequency tuning methods for micro- and nanomechanical resonator applications, and the resonant frequency shift due to the major influencing factors that have enabled fundamental insights into the frequency tuning principles and mechanisms as well as the some novel tuning structures and tunable resonators. Performance issues such as sensitivity, stability and resolution are addressed.
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