The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 09, 2009
Filed:
Dec. 20, 2006
Paul Merritt Hagelin, Saratoga, CA (US);
David Raymond Pedersen, Mountain View, CA (US);
Paul Merritt Hagelin, Saratoga, CA (US);
David Raymond Pedersen, Mountain View, CA (US);
SiTime Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a serrated tooth actuator for driving MEMS resonator structures. The actuator includes a fixed drive electrode having a serrated tooth surface opposing a MEMS resonator arm also having a serrated tooth surface, where the MEMS resonator arm is configured to rotate towards the drive electrode when an AC signal is applied to the drive electrode. Such a configuration permits higher amplitude signals to be applied to the drive electrode without the performance of the actuator being compromised by nonlinear effects. In addition, the serrated tooth configuration enables a sufficiently high actuating force to be maintained even though the distance traversed by the MEMS resonator arm during operation is quite small. Further, the serrated configuration allows a MEMS resonator system to withstand larger fluctuations in voltage and larger substrate stresses without experiencing a substantial shift in resonant frequency.