SBIR Phase I: Nanomechanical Resonator Technology for Passive and Active Devices in Wireless Applications

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I research project seeks to develop novel radio-frequency components for wireless communication using an innovative nanomechanical resonator technology platform. The company has developed the world's highest-frequency mechanical resonator and will use this device to create programmable RF filters for wireless communications in the 100 MHz to 3 GHz ranges. The project will develop a 900MHz and 2GHz filter design, test and characterize the design, transfer the manufacturing process to a commercial CMOS fabrication, package the devices using standard commercially available methods, design and test a single pole double throw switch and integrate a switch and filter onto the same die. Each of these resonators can act as a high Q filter, and arrays of these resonators can be combined to create bandpass filters of arbitrary bandwidth with low insertion loss and excellent outside-band attenuation. This potentially disruptive technology incorporates novel mechanical amplification of rigid nanostructures to achieve GHz resonant frequencies and RF performance levels not possible with MEMS scale devices. These filters will offer significant performance improvement over existing RF filter approaches with significant improvement in size, power consumption and filter performance. This platform will also allow additional devices such as clock oscillators and digital circuitry to be integrated onto the same chip. This technology will be used to replace existing discreet filters in cell phones and other mobile wireless devices with the ability to access many different air interfaces with excellent radio performance.