Enhanced piezoresistive sensing via synchronized oscillations in a mechanically coupled disk array

This paper presents the mechanical coupling of SOI disk resonators for synchronized oscillation of a resonator array. The synchronized array of disk resonators has the added enhancement of employing piezoresistive readout to boost electromechanical transconduction. Compared to a single disk resonator using capacitive readout, an array of two disks employing piezoresistive sensing provides a 18.2dB reduction in the insertion loss. In terms of quality factor (Q), rather than suffer a reduction as a result of the coupling, the coupled disk array even showed a doubling of Q relative to that of a single disk resonator (184,000 as compared to 95,000).