A Micro-Resonator Based Digital to Analog Converter for Ultralow Power Applications

Abstract

This paper presents a micro-resonator based digital to analog converter (DAC) for the internet of things (IoT) and low power applications. The device consists of a clamped-clamped micro-resonator with multiple electrodes. To enable the operation as a DAC, the air-gap between each partial electrode and the beam is varied based on the weight of input bits, so the beam's resonance frequency and the output amplitude are decided by digital inputs. The tested DAC consumes 7 pJ/conversion step with a sampling rate of 64 S/s. We show that a sampling rate of 0.1 MS/s and energy/conversion of 2.7 fJ can be achieved by moderate device scaling.

A Compact Low-Power Mem Resonator-Based Analog to Digital Converter With Feedthrough Signal Cancellation

“…Multiple MEMS-based DACs have been illustrated using relays [2], resonators [3,4], electrostatic actuators [5], and bent-beam electro-thermal actuators [6]. MEMS-based ADCs, on the other hand, are generally more difficult to implement.…”

Analytical and experimental study of the dynamics of a micro-electromechanical resonator based digital-to-analog converter

“…In the following analysis, we only consider the 3-bit DAC while keeping the D0 un-actuated to compare the analytical result with the experimental data reported in [33] and [34]. The air gaps between the beam and the corner electrodes are adjusted based on the weight of each bit such that the more significant bits have stronger effects on the beam.…”

“…In this paper, we analytically and experimentally investigate the statics and dynamics of the MEMS resonator-based 4-bit DAC [33,34] in depth. The device consists of a clamped-clamped beam, separated from various partial electrodes of different air-gap sizes.…”