Disclosed is a MEMS chip that in certain embodiments includes a substrate with a back cavity, and a plate capacitor bank provided on the substrate; the plate capacitor bank at least includes a first plate capacitor structure and a second plate capacitor structure located below the first plate capacitor structure and arranged in parallel with the first plate capacitor structure; the first plate capacitor structure includes a first diaphragm and a first hack electrode; and the second plate capacitor structure includes a second. diaphragm and a second back electrode.

A micro structure with a substrate having a top surface; a first electrode with a horizontal orientation parallel to the top surface of the substrate, wherein the first electrode is embedded within the substrate so that a top surface of the first electrode coincides with the top surface of the substrate; a dielectric layer arranged on the top surface of the first electrode; and a second electrode arranged above the dielectric layer.

Described embodiments include a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) array comprising a first MEMS device that includes a first movable electrostatic plate elastically connected to a first structure, the first movable electrostatic plate having a first mass, a first fixed electrostatic plate, and a first drive circuit having a first drive output coupled to the first fixed electrostatic plate. There is a second MEMS device that includes a second movable electrostatic plate elastically connected to a second structure, the second movable electrostatic plate having a second mass that is different than the first mass, a second fixed electrostatic plate, and a second drive circuit having a second drive output coupled to the second fixed electrostatic plate.

A surface monitoring device is for monitoring a contact surface of a detected object. The surface monitoring device and the detected object are disposed on a substrate. The surface monitoring device includes a resonant mechanical part, having a contact tip adjacent to the contact surface by a preset gap in a static state. A driving circuit, applying an AC input signal to drive the resonant mechanical part to cause the contact tip to vibrate with respect to the contact surface at a plurality of sampling frequencies. The contact tip substantially hits the contact surface in a tapping bandwidth within the sampling frequencies. An analysis circuit to analyze a ratio of an output voltage to an input voltage of the input signal and determine the tapping bandwidth, wherein the ratio in the tapping bandwidth is jumping to a flatten phase.

An acoustic imaging probe having an adjustable effective elevation length. The acoustic 5imaging probe has a transducer element, comprising a plurality of acoustic transducers, that is divided into a plurality of sets of adjacent transducers. A processing module controls how many sets contribute to an acoustic pulse emitted by the acoustic transducer element during an imaging process, to thereby adjust an effective elevation length of the acoustic imaging probe.

The present disclosure is directed to a process for manufacturing a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) device. The process includes, in part, forming a first sacrificial dielectric region on a semiconductor wafer; forming a structural layer of semiconductor material on the first sacrificial dielectric region; forming a plurality of first openings through the structural layer; forming a second sacrificial dielectric region on the structural layer; forming a ceiling layer of semiconductor material on the second sacrificial dielectric region; forming a plurality of second openings through the ceiling layer; forming on the ceiling layer a permeable layer; selectively removing the first and the second sacrificial dielectric regions; and forming on the permeable layer a sealing layer of semiconductor material.

A capacitive microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensor is provided, having conductive coatings on opposing surfaces of capacitive structures. The capacitive structures may be formed of silicon, and the conductive coating is formed of tungsten in some embodiments. The structure is formed in some embodiments by first releasing the silicon structures and then selectively coating them in the conductive material. In some embodiments, the coating may result in encapsulating the capacitive structures.

Embodiments for constant charge or capacitance for capacitive micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) sensors are presented herein. A MEMS device comprises a sense element circuit comprising a bias resistance, a charge-pump, and a capacitive sense element comprising an electrode and a sense capacitance. The charge-pump generates, at a bias resistor electrically coupled to the electrode, a bias voltage that is inversely proportional to a capacitance value comprising a value of the sense capacitance to facilitate maintenance of a nominally constant charge on the electrode. A sensing circuit comprises an alternating current (AC) signal source that generates an AC signal at a defined frequency; and generates, based on the AC signal, an AC test voltage at a test capacitance that is electrically coupled to the electrode. The sense element circuit generates, based on the AC test voltage at the defined frequency, an output signal representing the value of the sense capacitance.

An antenna having radio-frequency (RF) resonators and methods for fabricating the same are described. In one embodiment, the antenna comprises a physical antenna aperture having an array of antenna elements, where the array of antenna elements includes a plurality of radio-frequency (RF) resonators, with each RF resonator of the plurality of RF resonators having an RF radiating element with a microelectromchanical systems (MEMS) device.

A mechanism for reducing stiction in a MEMS device by decreasing surface area between two surfaces that can come into close contact is provided. Reduction in contact surface area is achieved by increasing surface roughness of one or both of the surfaces. The increased roughness is provided by forming a micro-masking layer on a sacrificial layer used in formation of the MEMS device, and then etching the surface of the sacrificial layer. The micro-masking layer can be formed using nanoclusters. When a next portion of the MEMS device is formed on the sacrificial layer, this portion will take on the roughness characteristics imparted on the sacrificial layer by the etch process. The rougher surface decreases the surface area available for contact in the MEMS device and, in turn, decreases the area through which stiction can be imparted.