University of California

Clark Tu-Cuong Nguyen

Roger T Howe

Vadim Gutnik

Bongsang Kim

Wei-Chang Li

Yang Lin

Li-Wen Hung

A modally driven oscillating element periodically contacts one of more electrical contacts, thereby acting as a switch, otherwise known as a resonant switch, or 'resoswitch', with very high Q's, typically above 10000 in air, and higher in vacuum. Due to periodic constrained contacting of the contacts, the bandwidth of the switch is greatly improved. One or more oscillating elements may be vibrationally interconnected with conductive or nonconductive coupling elements, whereby increased bandwidths of such an overall switching system may be achieved. Using the resoswitch, power amplifiers and converters more closely approaching ideal may be implemented. Integrated circuit fabrication techniques may construct the resoswitch with other integrated CMOS elements for highly compact switching devices. Through introduction of specific geometries within the oscillating elements, displacement gains may be made where modal deflections are greatly increased, thereby reducing device drive voltages to 2.5 V or lower.

Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) resonant switches and applications for power converters and amplifiers

Etchant-free methods of producing a gap between two materials are provided. Aspects of the methods include providing a structure comprising a first material and a second material, and subjecting the structure to conditions sufficient to cause a decrease in the volume of at least a portion of at least one of the first material and the second material to produce a gap between the first material and the second material. Also provided are devices produced by the methods (e.g., MEMS and NEMS devices), structures used in the methods and methods of making such structures.

Etchant-free methods of producing a gap between two layers, and devices produced thereby

A Q-controlled microresonator and devices including such resonators.

Q-controlled microresonators and tunable electronic filters using such resonators

Q-controlled microresonators and tunable electric filters using such

Mixing, modulation and demodulation using the nonlinear properties of microelectromechanical resonators and filters are described. Mixing followed by filtering is implemented using microelectromechanical filters with nonlinear input transducers. AM modulation is implemented by passing a carrier signal through the output transducer of a microelectromechanical filter. FM and FSK demodulation is accomplished using parallel banks of microelectromechanical filters. The invention can be implemented using integrated circuit technology.

Growing community of inventors

Oakland, CA, United States of America

Clark Tu-Cuong Nguyen