A Compact and Low-Power CMOS Circuit for Fully Integrated NEMS Resonators

• Published in: IEEE transactions on circuits and systems. II, Express briefs Vol. 54; no. 5; pp. 377 - 381
• Main Authors: Arcamone, J., Misischi, B., Serra-Graells, F., van den Boogaart, M.A.F., Brugger, J., Torres, F., Abadal, G., Barniol, N., Perez-Murano, F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.05.2007; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Circuits; CMOS; CMOS technology; current conveyor; Electric circuits; Electromechanical systems; Equivalent circuits; Integrated circuit technology; Lithography; low power; Nanocomposites; Nanoelectromechanical systems; nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS); Nanomaterials; Nanostructure; Nanostructures; Oscillators; read-out; Resonant frequency; resonator; Resonators; Semiconductor device modeling
• ISSN: 1549-7747; 1558-3791
• DOI: 10.1109/TCSII.2007.892228

This brief presents a fully integrated nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) resonator, operable at frequencies in the megahertz range, together with a compact built-in CMOS interfacing circuitry. The proposed low-power second-generation current conveyor circuit allows detailed read-out of the nanocantilever structure for either extraction of equivalent circuit models or comparative studies at different pressure and dc biasing conditions. In this sense, extensive experimental results are presented for a real mixed electromechanical system integrated through a combination of in-house standard CMOS technology and nanodevice post-processing by nanostencil lithography. The proposed read-out scheme can be easily adapted to operate the nanocantilever in closed loop operation as a stand-alone NEMS oscillator