Five Low-Noise Stable Oscillators Referenced to the Same Multimode AlN/Si MEMS Resonator

Abstract

We report on the first experimental demonstration of five self-sustaining feedback oscillators referenced to a single multimode resonator, using piezoelectric aluminum nitride on silicon (AlN/Si) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Integrated piezoelectric transduction enables efficient readout of five resonance modes of the same AlN/Si MEMS resonator, at 10, 30, 65, 95, and 233 MHz with quality ( Q ) factors of 18 600, 4350, 4230, 2630, and 2138, respectively, at room temperature. Five stable self-sustaining oscillators are built, each referenced to one of these high- Q modes, and their mode-dependent phase noise and frequency stability (Allan deviation) are measured and analyzed. The 10, 30, 65, 95, and 233 MHz oscillators exhibit low phase noise of -116, -100, -105, -106, and -92 dBc/Hz at 1 kHz offset frequency, respectively. The 65 MHz oscillator yields the Allan deviation of 4×10^-9 and 2×10^-7 at 1 and 1000 s averaging time, respectively. The 10 MHz oscillator's low phase noise holds strong promise for clock and timing applications. The five oscillators' overall promising performance suggests suitability for multimode resonant sensing and real-time frequency tracking. This work also elucidates mode dependency in oscillator noise and stability, one of the key attributes of mode-engineerable resonators.