Micromechanical resonators with sub-micron gaps filled with high-k dielectrics

Scaled microelectromechanical (MEMS) resonating devices have generated a great interest for their use in RF front-end architectures for wireless communication, channel-select filters, on-chip signal processing and timing and extreme mas sensing applications thanks to their robustness, low power consumption, easy integration with CMOS and multimode reconfigurability. Therefore, MEMS resonators are a promising alternative to various discrete electrical components, offering excellent figures of merit at in the HF/VHF frequency range. However, there are many remaining open challenges for the research on MEMS resonators such as high quality factor at high frequency, thermal stability, reduced motional resistance, frequency precision and stability, low phase noise and appropriate hermetical and low cost packaging. Many advanced MEMS resonators use deep sub-micron air gaps (