NOVEL PARAMETRIC-EFFECT MEMS AMPLIFIERS/TRANSDUCERS

摘要

A parametric effect amplifier has been built at 200 kHz (input) andrn1.84 MHz (output) using a MEMS time-varying capacitor. Therncapacitor is composed of a thin low stress metallized silicon-nitriderndiaphragm and is pumped by a large signal voltage at 1.64 MHz.rnThis results in a large change in the capacitance, and parametricrnamplification of an input signal at 200 kHz. To our knowledge, thisrndevice is the first-ever mechanical up-converter parametric-effectrnamplifier, with an up-conversion ratio of 9: 1. Its main advantagesrnare the absence of any resistive and I/f noise, and mostrnimportantly, it provides gain at the transducer level. Somernadvantages over CMOS based electronic amplifiers are thernpossibility to operate at very high temperatures (200-6OO℃), underrnhigh particle bombardment (nuclear applications), and very lowrnnoise operation due to the absence of thermal and shot noise inrnparametric amplifiers.