MICROMECHANICAL CANTILEVER RESONATORS WITH INTEGRATED OPTICAL INTERROGATION

The combination of integrated optics and micromechanics on silicon offers micromechanical devices with optical read-out. Integrated optical waveguide devices with silicon oxinitride (SiON) strip waveguides are fabricated by CMOS-compatible PECVD and RIE processes. The stress-compensated SiO2/SiON/SiO2 waveguide layer system is utilized to fabricate cantilever resonators with 50-200 kHz resonance frequency, and a quality factor of about 100. The coupling between optical waveguides across 2 mum gaps is employed to detect resonator vibrations. Arrays of eight resonators with 10 and 1 kHz frequency spacings which are connected via 1 X 8 waveguide branching structures have been fabricated and tested.