Microelectromechanical bandpass filters based on cyclic coupling architectures

Bandpass filters based on resonant microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have the unique advantage of being able to leverage the benefits of classical mechanical filters, including their high quality factors of resonance, while simultaneously addressing the challenges associated with manufacturing cost and size, and enabling integrated fabrication with other on-chip components. While prior research has demonstrated the benefits of microelectromechanical filters composed of both isolated and coupled microresonators, the optimality of existing filter architectures, and their associated performance metrics, is yet to be fully determined. To this end, the current effort seeks to investigate the relative utility of micromechanical filter designs which exploit a nontraditional filter architecture founded upon cyclic, elastic coupling. Specifically, the work seeks to characterize the pertinent performance metrics and robustness characteristics associated with these systems, and to benchmark the acquired results against conventional, open-chain filter designs. The work ultimately demonstrates that MEMS filters based upon cyclic coupling architectures may be beneficially leveraged in certain filter implementations to improve overall system performance. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.