A suspended device structure comprises a substrate, a cavity disposed in a surface of the substrate, and a device suspended entirely over a bottom of the cavity. The device is a piezoelectric device and is suspended at least by a tether that physically connects the device to the substrate. The tether has a non-linear centerline. A wafer can comprise a plurality of suspended device structures. A device structure can comprise a device over a sacrificial portion or cavity and a tether with a tether opening extending to the sacrificial portion or cavity. The tether or tether opening can have a T shape. The tether can have a tether length at least one third as large as a device length and the device can have a device length at least twice as large as a device width.

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to acoustically decoupled microelectromechanical system devices and, more particularly, to acoustically decoupled microelectromechanical system devices anchored upon phononic crystals. In some embodiments described herein, a device may comprise a resonator, a handle layer, and a pedestal disposed between the resonator and the handle layer, the pedestal connecting the resonator to the handle layer. In the devices described herein, the resonator and the handle layer may be non-coplanar. In some embodiments, the handle layer comprises a phononic crystal to acoustically decouple the resonator from the substrate of the handle layer.

A resonator is provided that includes a vibrating portion including three or more vibrating arms with at least two vibrating arms that bend out of plane with different phases and a base. The resonator also includes a frame that holds the vibrating portion; and a support arm having one end connected to the frame and the other end connected to a rear end portion of the base. The other end of the support arm is connected to a position in a range from −0.1 WB to 0.1 WB, with respect to a base width WB of the base, relative to a position, on the rear end portion of the base where a center line passes in a plan view. A support arm length of the support arm is 0.2 or more times and 0.4 or less times a vibrating arm length of the vibrating arms.

A resonator comprising a magnetoelastic body having a mass load portion and an active resonating portion can be used in implementations such as a security tag. The resonator includes a mass at the mass load portion of the magnetoelastic body. Displacement of the magnetoelastic body is configured to occur at both the mass load portion and the active resonating portion. A strain at the active resonating portion during displacement is configured to be greater than a strain at the mass load portion during displacement.

A microelectromechanical (MEMS) resonator includes a resonator structure having a plurality of beam elements and connection elements with certain geometry, where the plurality of beam elements are positioned adjacent to each other and adjacent beam elements are mechanically connected to each other by the connection elements, where the geometry of the beam elements or the connection elements varies within the resonator structure.

A resonator is provided that includes a vibrating section that vibrates in a contour vibration mode, a frame that surrounds at least a portion of the vibrating section, supporting sections extending along a Y-axis direction and connecting the vibrating section and the frame. The vibrating section includes a through hole that extends along an X-axis direction perpendicular to the Y-axis direction such that a coupling section is disposed between the through hole and each of the supporting sections. The length SL of the through hole in the X-axis direction is longer than the length Sd of the coupling section in the Y-axis direction.

Micro-machined acoustic and ultrasonic transducer (MAUT), particularly piezoelectric MAUT (PMAUT), performance tradeoffs have meant reasonable pixel depth resolution necessitated low quality factor (Q) transducers with power distributed over a large bandwidth yielding modest imaging ranges whilst high-Q transducers providing higher acoustic power output for longer imaging ranges exhibit extended ringing limiting pixel depth information. Accordingly, the inventors have established MAUTs supporting high-Q transducers for long-range high-resolution imaging by integrating electromechanical actuators (dampers) which can be selectively engaged to mechanically damped the MAUT. In several applications PMAUT arrays are required where all transducer elements should have almost identical resonant frequencies. However, prior art fabrication processes have tended to produce PMAUTs with large inter-chip and inter-wafer variances. Prior art methodologies to reduce inter-wafer process variations do not address intra-wafer or inter-chip process variations and accordingly the inventors have established manufacturing methodologies and design solutions to address these for the PMAUT resonant frequency.

The present invention relates to tunable microresonators, as well as methods of designing and tuning such resonators. In particular, tuning includes applying an electrical bias to the resonator, thereby shifting the resonant frequency.

A microelectromechanical device having a mobile structure including mobile arms formed from a composite material and having a fixed structure including fixed arms capacitively coupled to the mobile arms. The composite material includes core regions of insulating material and a silicon coating.

An acoustic resonator includes a piezoelectric stack including a piezoelectric layer having a top surface and a bottom surface, a top electrode layer disposed above the top surface, and a bottom electrode layer disposed below the bottom surface. A number of acoustic wave reflectors are disposed on a side of the bottom electrode layer opposite the piezoelectric layer. Each acoustic wave reflector includes a high acoustic impedance layer and may include a low acoustic impedance layer. The acoustic resonator may include a tether that extends laterally to a stacking direction of the layers of the piezoelectric stack. A supporting structure may be coupled to the tether opposite the acoustic resonator for anchoring the acoustic resonator. A mirror, one or more phononic crystals, or both may be positioned on proximate the tether opposite the acoustic resonator to avoid resonant waves from exiting the acoustic resonator in use.