CMOS-MEMS prestress vertical cantilever resonator with electrostatic driving and piezoresistive sensing

This paper presents a CMOS-MEMS prestress vertical comb-drive resonator with a piezoresistive sensor to detect its static and dynamic response. The proposed resonator consists of a set of comb fingers fabricated along with a composite beam. One end of the composite beam is clamped to the anchor, while the other is elevated by residual stress. Actuation occurs when the electrostatic force, induced by the fringe effect, pulls the composite beam downwards to the substrate. The initial tip height at the free end of the resonator due to residual stress is approximately 60 µm. A piezoresistor is designed to sense the vertical deflection and vibration of the resonator. The relative change in the resistance of the piezoresistor (ΔR/R) is about 0.52% when a voltage of 100 V is applied in static mode. The first resonant frequency of the device is 14.5 kHz, and the quality factor is around 36 in air. The device is fabricated through TSMC 0.35 µm 2p4m CMOS process and post-CMOS process.