We present a novel design of a low-power microelectro-mechanical digital to analog converter (DAC) based on a clamped-clamped micro-beam resonator with multiple split electrodes and capacitive airgaps of various widths. The proposed n-bit DAC device operates at a single drive frequency and can access one of 2n distinct stable states based on the applied digital combination. The digital inputs (binary numbers) modulate the beam resonance frequency using the electrostatic softening effect, where the larger binary numbers result in higher beam resonance frequency. Although the tested device consumes 151 pJ per conversion step with a conversion rate of 0.64 kHz, we show that by moderate downscaling of the device dimensions, femto-joules energy consumption and MHz conversion rates are attainable. [2019-0264].

中文翻译：

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基于低功耗微机电谐振器的数模转换器


我们提出了一种低功耗微机电数模转换器（DAC）的新颖设计，该设计基于具有多个分裂电极和各种宽度的电容气隙的夹钳式微梁谐振器。所提出的 n 位 DAC 器件以单一驱动频率运行，并且可以根据所应用的数字组合访问 2n 个不同稳定状态之一。数字输入（二进制数）利用静电软化效应来调制梁共振频率，其中较大的二进制数导致更高的梁共振频率。尽管测试设备每个转换步骤消耗 151 pJ，转换率为 0.64 kHz，但我们表明，通过适度缩小设备尺寸，可以实现飞焦级能耗和 MHz 转换率。 [2019-0264]。