Claims
- 1. A high-Q micromechanical device comprising:
a substrate; a pair of conductive layers supported on the substrate and having a capacitive gap therebetween; a dielectric disposed in the gap between the conductive layers; and means for displacing the dielectric within the gap between the conductive layers to tune the capacitor over a tuning range.
- 2. The device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the means for displacing electrostatically displaces the dielectric in the gap.
- 3. The device as claimed in claim 1 further comprising at least one spring element coupled to the dielectric to move the dielectric between the layers.
- 4. The device as claimed in claim 3 wherein the at least one spring element includes a lateral spring element supported on the substrate.
- 5. The device as claimed in claim 3 wherein the at least one spring element includes a vertical spring element supported on the substrate.
- 6. The device as claimed in claim 1 wherein one of the conductive layers forms at least a portion of a top plate and the other conductive layer forms at least a portion of a bottom plate and wherein both of the top and bottom plates are fixed to the substrate.
- 7. The device as claimed in claim 6 wherein each of the conductive layers is a conductive metal.
- 8. The device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the substrate is a semiconductor substrate.
- 9. The device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the tuning range is based on a ratio of thickness of the dielectric to thickness of the gap between the conductive layers.
- 10. The device as claimed in claim 1 wherein a Q factor of the device is greater than 50.
- 11. The device as claimed in claim 10 wherein a Q factor of the device is greater than 200.
- 12. The device as claimed in claim 11 wherein the Q factor is greater than 290.
- 13. The device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the device is a capacitor.
- 14. The device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the device is a capacitive switch.
- 15. A method for tuning a micromechanical device, the method comprising:
providing a pair of conductive layers supported on a substrate and having a capacitive gap therebetween; providing a dielectric in the gap between the conductive layers; and applying a voltage bias to the conductive layers to electrostatically displace the dielectric between the conductive layers.
- 16. The method as claimed in claim 15 further comprising moving the dielectric between the layers.
- 17. The method as claimed in claim 15 wherein the device is a capacitor.
- 18. The method as claimed in claim 15 wherein the device is a capacitive switch.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application Serial No. 60/263,812, filed Jan. 24, 2001, entitled “High-Q Tunable Micromechanical Capacitor With Movable Dielectric.”
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
[0002] The invention was made with government support under Contract No. F30602-97-2-0101 provided by DARPA. The United States government has certain rights in the invention.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60263812 |
Jan 2001 |
US |