Nano electromechanical integrated-circuit filter

Abstract

A nano electromechanical integrated circuit filter and method of making. The filter comprises a silicon substrate; a sacrificial layer; a device layer including at least one resonator, wherein the resonator includes sub-micron excitable elements and wherein the at least one resonator possess a fundamental mode frequency as well as a collective mode frequency and wherein the collective mode frequency of the at least one resonator is determined by the fundamental frequency of the sub-micron elements.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An integrated circuit filter, the filter comprising:
 a silicon substrate;   a sacrificial layer;   a device layer including at least one resonator, wherein the resonator includes sub-micron excitable elements and wherein the at least one resonator possesses a fundamental mode frequency as well as a collective mode frequency and wherein the collective mode frequency of the at least one resonator is determined by the fundamental frequency of the submicron elements.   
     
     
         2 . The filter of  claim 1  further including a second resonator connected to the at least one resonator by a connector. 
     
     
         3 . The filter of  claim 2 , wherein the connection is electrical in characteristic. 
     
     
         4 . The filter of  claim 2 , wherein a collective mode frequency of the second resonator is different than the collective mode frequency of the at least one resonator. 
     
     
         5 . The filter of  claim 2 , wherein the second resonator is selected from the group consisting of mechanical, electrical, magnetic, optical and piezo. 
     
     
         6 . The filter of  claim 2 , wherein at least one resonator and second resonator create a filter with the operational frequency between 10 MHz-100 GHz. 
     
     
         7 . The filter of  claim 1 , wherein the sub-micron excitable elements vary in size and fundamental mode frequency to determine more than one collective mode frequency. 
     
     
         8 . The filter of  claim 1 , wherein the sub-micron excitable elements vibrate in a mode selected from the group consisting of flexural, torsional shear, and longitudinal. 
     
     
         9 . The filter of  claim 7 , wherein the more than one collective mode frequency can be combined to generate a desired filter response. 
     
     
         10 . The filter of  claim 1 , wherein the filter is combined with more than filter to form a bank of filters of similar frequency response. 
     
     
         11 . The filter of  claim 1 , wherein the filter is combined with more than filter operating at multiple frequency bands. 
     
     
         12 . The filter of  claim 1 , wherein the filter is combined with more than filter operating at the similar frequency bands. 
     
     
         13 . The filter of  claim 1 , wherein the operational frequency response is selected from the group consisting of high, low, band, notch, and arbitrary. 
     
     
         14 . The filter of  claim 1 , wherein the filter's bandwidth is tunable. 
     
     
         15 . The filter of  claim 1 , wherein the sub-micron elements are excited by a transduction mechanism selected from the group consisting of piezoelectric, magnetomotive, magnetostatic, electrostatic capacitive transduction, optical, thermoelastic, thermomechanical, and piezoresistive. 
     
     
         16 . The filter of  claim 1 , wherein the connection between the at least one resonator and the second resonator is selected from the group consisting of capacitive, electrostatic, optical, thermomechanical, magnetic, piezoelectric/resistive, and electrodynamic. 
     
     
         17 . The filter of  claim 1 , wherein the filter is combined with other electronic elements within an integrated circuit. 
     
     
         18 . The filter of  claim 1 , wherein the filter is tunable by causing an effective change in the stiffness of the at least one resonator by applying one selected from one of the group consisting of mechanical strain, electrical spring softening, thermal expansion and thermal contraction. 
     
     
         19 . The filter of  claim 17 , wherein the at least one resonator is tuned according to operating temperature. 
     
     
         20 . The filter of  claim 1  wherein the sub-micron elements consist of a curvature of a spring structure.