Commissariat a L'energie Atomique Et Aux Energies Alternatives

Stmicroelectronics S.a.

Loïc Joet

Philippe Robert

Guillaume Jourdan

Patrice Rey

Thierry Hilt

Bertrand Delaet

Stéphane Le Tual

Eric Andre

Stéphane Fanget

Daniel Saias

Thierry Verdot

Eoin Ohannaidh

Sébastien Dedieu

Samer Dagher

Federico Maspero

A method for manufacturing an electroacoustic transducer includes a frame; an element movable with respect to the frame, the movable element including a membrane and a structure for rigidifying the membrane; a first transmission arm, the movable element being coupled to an end of the first transmission arm; wherein the trimming of the membrane and the trimming of the rigidification structure are decorrelated in a region around an intersection between the position of the first transmission arm and the periphery of the rigidification structure.

Method for manufacturing an electroacoustic transducer

A mechanical coupling device coupling in movement two elements able to move in translation along a first direction, configured to impose thereon movements in phase opposition, the coupling device including two arms rotationally articulated about a second out-of-plane direction, each arm to be connected to one of the movable elements, a coupling element to which the two arms are connected by elements having high rigidity in a third direction, the coupling element being configured to move in translation along the third direction, first and second devices for suspending the coupling element configured to guide the coupling element in translation along the third direction and to limit rotational movement thereof about the second direction.

Coupling device intended to couple two elements in movement

A mechanical link for microelectromechanical and/or nanoelectromechanical structure, includes a mobile component, a fixed component extending on a plane, and apparatus for detecting displacement of the mobile component relative to the fixed component. The mechanical link includes: a first link to the fixed component and mobile component, allowing rotation of the mobile component relative to the fixed component about an axis of rotation; a second link connecting the mobile component to the detection apparatus at a distance and perpendicular to the axis of rotation; a third link to the fixed component and detection apparatus, guiding the detection apparatus in a direction of translation in the plane; wherein the combination of the second link and third link can transform rotational movement of the mobile component into translational movement of the detection apparatus in the direction of translation. The detection apparatus includes a piezoresistive/piezoelectric strain gauge, resonance beam, capacitance, or combination thereof.

Mechanical link for MEMS and NEMS mechanical structure, and MEMS and NEMS structure comprising such a mechanical link

A method for manufacturing an electroacoustic transducer includes a frame; an element moveable with respect to the frame, the moveable element including a membrane and a structure for rigidifying the membrane; a first transmission arm, the moveable element being coupled to an end of the first transmission arm; wherein a shield is used to protect the rigidification structure during a step of etching a substrate, the etching of the substrate making it possible to delimit the first transmission arm and to lighten the moveable element.

A mechanical connection is provided for a microelectromechanical and/or nanoelectromechanical device for measuring a variation in pressure. The device includes a fixed component extending in a main plane, a mobile component to move or deform in an out-of-plane direction under effect of a variation in pressure, and a detector of movement or deformation having at least one mobile element. The mechanical connection includes: a lever arm; a first connection connecting the mobile component to a first end of the lever arm, the first connection transmitting out-of-plane movement of the mobile component to the first end of the lever arm while allowing out-of-plane rotation of the lever arm about a direction of rotation; a second connection connected to the second end of the lever arm to allow mainly an out-of-plane rotation of the lever arm about an axis of rotation extending in the direction of rotation; a third connection connecting the lever arm to the detector at a given distance from the axis of rotation in the out-of-plane direction, the third connection being designed to convert the rotation of the lever arm about the axis of rotation into a translation in the plane of the at least one mobile element in a direction of translation.

Mechanical connection for a MEMS and NEMS device for measuring a variation in pressure, and device comprising such a mechanical connection

An MEMS or NEMS accelerometer adapted to measure an acceleration along a sensing axis includes a substrate featuring a plane; a mass having a central zone and suspended relative to the substrate; a single lever arm comprising: a first end connected to the substrate by means of a first connection adapted to allow rotation of the lever arm about a rotation axis perpendicular to the sensing axis, and a second end connected to the mass by means of a second connection adapted to transmit movement in translation of the mass to the lever arm whilst allowing rotation of the lever arm about the rotation axis; the second end of the lever arm being disposed at the level of the central zone of the mass; at least one strain gauge comprising: a first end connected to the substrate, and a second end connected to the lever arm.

Strain gauge sensor accelerometer with improved accuracy

An analog finite impulse response (AFIR) filter including at least one variable transconductance block having an input for receiving an input voltage and being adapted to sequentially apply each of a plurality of transconductance levels to the input voltage during at least one of a plurality of successive time periods to generate an output current at an output of the variable transconductance block, the at least one variable transconductance block including a plurality of fixed transconductance blocks each receiving the input voltage and capable of being independently activated to supply the output current; and a capacitor coupled to the output of the variable transconductance block to receive the output current and provide an output voltage of the filter.

Analog FIR filter

The invention relates to a method for the filtering and analog/digital conversion of an incoming analog signal including an analog filtering of the incoming analog signal so as to filter the frequency components located outside a desired frequency band, and a conversion of the filtered analog signal to a digital signal. The digital signal is reformatted in a form that is substantially similar, at least in the desired frequency band, to the form of the incoming analog signal. A final digital filtering of the reformatted digital signal is performed so as to filter the frequency components located outside the desired frequency band.

Method and device for the filtering and analogue/digital conversion of analogue signal

A method is for processing an incident signal, in which the incident signal is delivered to a transconductor stage, and a current output of the transconductor stage is coupled to an output capacitor so as to deliver to the output capacitor a current signal lasting for at least part of the first half-period of each period of a periodic signal and to thus obtain a frequency-transposed signal at the output capacitor. Upon the occurrence of each part of the first half-period, the voltage of the current output, seen from the output capacitor, is reset to a value equal to that of the voltage of the output capacitor.

Method and device for processing an incident signal, in particular for frequency transposition

The method and device include the filtering and the analog/digital conversion of an intermediate signal. The intermediate signal is processed by a filtering and analog/digital conversion circuit that is configurable using switched passive capacitor technology. The various configurations successively adopted by the circuit provide filtering and analog/digital conversion to be successively carried out.

Method and device for processing an incident signal, in particular for filtering and analog/digital conversion

A method for sampling an analogue radiofrequency signal comprising reception of the analogue radiofrequency signal, sending of the received signal on two analogue channels, each channel performing a first signal sampling operation, including a filtering step eliminating signal frequencies that could fold on the useful signal during sampling such that the sampled signal represents a filtered version of the received signal, wherein the sampling frequency is taken to be equal to the frequency of the signal carrier divided by a factor Ndiv1+&#xbd;, Ndiv1 being an integer number, to bring the useful signal to half of the sampling frequency after sampling.

Method of sampling an analogue radiofrequency signal

A method for generating a signal with a frequency equal to a product of a reference frequency and a real number includes providing an output signal from an oscillator, and performing a first integer division of a frequency of the output signal by a first integer divider to obtain a first intermediate signal. A first measurement signal representative of a time difference between the first intermediate signal and a reference signal having the reference frequency is determined. The method further includes generating a first comparison signal derived from the first measurement signal, and generating a second comparison signal dependent on a period of the reference signal, on integer and decimal parts of the real number and on the first integer divider. The first and second comparison signals are compared to obtain an error signal representative of a time difference between a period of a current output signal and the period of the reference signal. The first integer division is deactivated to deliver an error signal to the input of the oscillator, with the output signal from the oscillator forming the desired signal with a frequency equal to the product of the reference frequency and the real number.

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Grenoble, France

Loïc Joet