Amorphous Silicon Carbide (α-SiC) Thin Square Membranes for Resonant Micromechanical Devices

Andrew C. Barnes; Christian A. Zorman; Philip X.L. Feng

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.717-720.533

Paper Titles

Extended Characterization of the Stress Fields in the Heteroepitaxial Growth of 3C-SiC on Silicon for Sensors and Device Applications
p.517

Stress Evaluation on Hetero-Epitaxial 3C-SiC Film on (100) Si Substrates
p.521

Micro-Raman Analysis of a Micromachined 3C-SiC Cantilever
p.525

Single-Crystal SiC Resonators by Photoelectrochemical Etching
p.529

Amorphous Silicon Carbide (α-SiC) Thin Square Membranes for Resonant Micromechanical Devices
p.533

Amorphous Silicon Carbide as a Non-Biofouling Structural Material for Biomedical Microdevices
p.537

Seebeck Coefficient of Heavily Doped Polycrystalline 3C-SiC Deposited by LPCVD
p.541

OBIC Measurements on Avalanche Diodes in 4H-SiC for the Determination of Impact Ionization Coefficients
p.545

Radiation Hardness of Wide-Bandgap Materials as Exemplified by SiC Nuclear Radiation Detectors
p.549

HomeMaterials Science ForumMaterials Science Forum Vols. 717-720Amorphous Silicon Carbide (α-SiC) Thin Square...

Amorphous Silicon Carbide (α-SiC) Thin Square Membranes for Resonant Micromechanical Devices

Abstract:

We report an initial experimental exploration of engineering very thin, suspended amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC) membranes into vibrating micromechanical devices. We show that micromachined a-SiC thin square membranes can make interesting multiple-mode flexural resonators, with frequency spectra exhibiting many measurable resonant modes over a wide frequency range (100kHz–10MHz) in the low radio frequency (RF) bands. Initial demonstration and preliminary data suggest interesting and rich dynamical, nonlinear, and dissipative properties in these micromechanical resonances. Specifically, for instance, at room temperature (T≈300K) and in moderate vacuum (e.g., ~20mTorr), resonant modes of an a-SiC square membrane (thickness: t≈1.5µm, size: 1mm×1mm) are observed in the ~100kHz–5MHz range, with measured quality factors (Q’s) in the range of ~2,500–9,000.

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Materials Science Forum (Volumes 717-720)

Pages:

533-536

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.717-720.533

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Online since:

May 2012

Authors:

Andrew C. Barnes, Christian A. Zorman, Philip X.L. Feng

Keywords:

Amorphous SiC, Micromechanical Resonator, Nano/Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS/MEMS), SiC Membrane, Vibrational Mode

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