Resonant body transistors

Subsequently, growing interest in wireless applications has generated tremendous technological progress in the field of radio frequency micro-electro-mechanical systems (RF MEMS) and transformed the MEM resonator technology based on IC-compatible micromachining processes and materials such as semiconductors, polysilicon or metals in a strong competitor position to the quartz crystal. Today, majority of the MEM resonators exploit the principles of capacitive excitation and detection via deep sub-micron air-gaps. However, MEM resonators with capacitively transduced signals are passive devices that show limited scaling potential in terms of impedance and signal-to-noise ratio. Inspired by the resonant gate transistor, vibrating or resonant body transistors (VBT or RBT) have been proposed for the first time in 2007-2008, by embedding a field effect transistor in the body of vibrating beams. Such devices could be envisioned for future complex collective electro-mechanical signal processing based on millions of resonant transistors interfaced with advanced CMOS on a single silicon chip.