Design of a novel MEMS resonator based neuromorphic oscillator

A novel MEMS based neuromorphic oscillator is presented. Due to compatibility with CMOS process, on-chip integration of electro-statically actuated microresonators is possible with very small size. Also, taking advantage of sacrificial sidewall spacer technique for fabrication of 100 nm vertical gap, as low actuation voltages as 0.5 V is enough for such resonators. Oscillatory neuron dynamics are also studied and design of the resonator and its characteristics are described as a neuromorphic oscillator. There are several practical barriers associated with MEMS implementation of neuromorphic oscillators such as existence of near-to-main mode spurious modes, requiring of UHF high gain trans-impedance amplifier because of very high motional resistance of such resonators, and automatic amplitude control circuit which all investigated in the paper and surmounted as well. A coupling technique for weak connection of such resonators is also described in the paper which allows mechanical low velocity connection of UHF contour mode disk resonators for the first time.