A Low phase noise 10MHz micromechanical lamé-mode bulk oscillator operating in nonlinear region

Abstract

In this paper, a 10MHz micromechanical reference oscillator is presented by combining lamé-mode bulk resonator with Q above 200,000 and low noise off-chip interface circuitry. Benefiting from high quality factor as well as large energy storage capability of the bulk resonator, low phase noise performance has been achieved even when the resonator is operating in nonlinear region with a 4Vp-p oscillation output. A clear sine wave output signal is observed and the oscillator shows -138dBc/Hz noise floor and -132dBc/Hz 1kHz away from the carrier, which meets the cellular phase noise requirement of -130dBc/Hz at 1kHz offset for 13MHz GSM reference oscillators. Such oscillator does not require any gain limiting circuitry and hence makes the implementation much simpler and less noisy. © 2010 IEEE.