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 DC bias voltage means coupled to the pair of conductive layers for displacing the dielectric to modify the extent to which the dielectric is disposed within the gap between the conductive layers to tune the device 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 DC voltage bias to the conductive layers to electrostatically displace the dielectric to modify the extent to which the dielectric is disposed between the conductive layers to tune the device over a tuning range.
- 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.
- 19. The device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the device is waffle-shaped.
- 20. The method as claimed in claim 15 wherein the device is waffle-shaped.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/263,812, filed Jan. 24, 2001 now abandoned, entitled “High-Q Tunable Micromechanical Capacitor With Movable Dielectric.”
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
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.
US Referenced Citations (5)
Foreign Referenced Citations (4)
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Provisional Applications (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60/263812 |
Jan 2001 |
US |