ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of resonance and its applications in sensor, actuator, and signal processor design. Resonance is used for sensing, actuation, or signal processing at micro- and nanoscales. In all these cases, it is needed to employ proper transduction mechanisms to convert signals from an electrical domain to mechanical at the input port of the device, and often, from a mechanical domain to electrical at an output port. Piezoelectricity is a common actuation and sensing mechanism. Process flow integration is more challenging for piezoelectric transducers as there are few piezoelectric materials, such as aluminum nitride, that are permitted in a general fabrication process. Resonators have long been used for signal processing applications due to their highly selective frequency response. Two of the major application areas have been in realization of high-frequency bandpass filters and low-phase noise oscillators. Resonance is a promising candidate as the transduction mechanism for the realization of single-chip, multitransducer systems.
