Low Temperature Study of Loss Mechanisms of Mechanical Oscillators

Abstract

In order to understand the loss mechanism of mechanical oscillators in micro-electromechanical systems, we have studied the temperature dependence of the quality factor Q of a high Q silicon mechanical oscillator from 0.4 K to 300 K. At temperatures above 70 K, the energy loss is principally caused by thermoelastic effect in the flexural components of the modes. Below 50 K, we find the improvements in vibration isolation guided by the finite element method do not significantly improve its Q. This indicates that some intrinsic loss mechanism may still be important even at low temperatures.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2001
Accession Number
ADA446591

Entities

People

  • A. Sarkissian
  • Brian H. Houston
  • D. M. Photiadis
  • J. F. Vignola
  • R. D. Merithew
  • R. O. Pohl
  • Xiao Liu

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Air Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustic Propagation
  • Electronic Mail
  • Energy
  • Frequency
  • Geometry
  • Gray Scale
  • Information Operations
  • Kinetic Energy
  • Low Temperature
  • Materials
  • Measurement
  • Metal Films
  • Microelectromechanical Systems
  • Numbers
  • Oscillators
  • Sound Waves
  • Vibration

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Integrated Circuit Design and Technology.
  • Structural Dynamics.
  • Thermal Physics or Thermal Science.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Microelectromechanical Systems