HybridMems – Weinstein Research Group

Developments in MEMS fabrication technology over the past two decades have yielded new opportunities to design high quality factor (Q) micromechanical structures for ultra-low-power frequency-domain signal processing, sensing, and timing applications. Our goal is to harness the benefits of new and high-impact micromechanical devices and circuits for low-power, compact wireless communication, physical and chemical sensors, and timing applications. In the HybridMEMS Lab we invent new mechanical designs and efficient transducers to make MEMS resonators with high resonance frequency, low motional impedance, strong transducer coupling coefficient, low bias drift and wide programmable range. We further investigate coupling mechanisms between resonators to demonstrate channel-select filters and synchronized oscillator dynamics, and explore inter-domain coupling to design merged MEMS-CMOS and MEMS-HEMT devices. Our lab has also focused on the extension of these devices and systems into unreleased structures, eradicating the need for costly packaging, improving yield and robustness in harsh environments, and making MEMS resonators more accessible for a wide range of applications.

Y. He, B. Bahr, D. Weinstein, “A Tunable Ferroelectric Based Unreleased RF Resonator,” Nature Microsystems & Nanoengineering 6, 8 (2020).

C. Huang, Z. Zhang, S. Ramanathan, D. Weinstein, “VO2 phase transition-based vertical MEMS microactuators,” IEEE Trans. Dev. Lett, 66(10), 4380-86 (2019).

Scott T. Habermehl; Nikhil Bajaj; Shreyas Shah; D. Dane Quinn; Dana Weinstein; Jeffrey Rhoads, “Synchronization in a Network of Coupled MEMS-Colpitts Oscillators,” Nonlinear Dynamics, 98(4), 3037-3050 (2019).

Y. He, B. Bahr, M. Si, P. Ye, D. Weinstein, “Switchable mechanical resonance induced by hysteretic piezoelectricity in ferroelectric capacitors,” Transducers-Eurosensors 2019, Berlin, Germany, June 23-27, 2019.

U.K. Bhaskar, S.A. Bhave, D. Weinstein, “Silicon acoustoelectronics with thin film lithium niobate,” J. Phys. D: Applied Phys. 52(5), 05LT01 (2018).

A. Erbes, W. Wang, D. Weinstein, A.A. Seshia, "Acoustic mode confinement using coupled cavity structures in UHF unreleased MEMS resonators," Microsystem Technologies (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-018-4118-5

K. Ramadoss, F. Zuo, Y. Sun, Z. Zhang, J. Lin, U. Bhaskar, S. Shin, M.A. Alam, S. Guha, D. Weinstein, S. Ramanathan, "Strongly correlated proton-doped perovskite nickelate memory devices," IEEE Electr. Dev. Lett. 39(10), 1500-03 (2018).

Dana Weinstein received her B.A. in Physics and Astrophysics from University of California - Berkeley in 2004 and her Ph.D. in Applied Physics in 2009 from Cornell, working on multi-GHz MEMS.

Prior to joining Purdue as an Associate Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2015, Dr. Weinstein joined the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT as an Assistant Professor, and served as an Associate Professor there between 2013 and 2015. Dana is now a Purdue Faculty Scholar and serves as Associate Dean of Graduate Education in the College of Engineering. She is the recipient of the Transducers Early Career Award, NSF CAREER Award, the DARPA Young Faculty Award, the Intel Early Career Award, and the IEEE IEDM Roger A. Haken Best Paper Award.

10.2021 Join us at MEMS 2022, Jan 9-13, to hear from Imtiaz Ahmed on exciting results in aggressive frequency scaling of low-loss acoustic modes above 14 GHz in SweGaN's QuanfINE technology.

4.2021 Matt Storey to present on a acoustoelectric switch, demonstrating the isolation capabilities of AE. Transducers'21, June 20-25. This work is in collaboration with Sandia National Labs.

3.2021 Congratulations Dr. Yanbo He on successfully defending his Ph.D. on ferroelectric CMOS-MEMS and signal processing in acoustic metamaterials! Yanbo will be joining Skyworks to continue his work on MEMS.

2.2021 Congratulations Dr. Matt Storey on completing his Ph.D. on acoustoelectric effect for RF signal processing! Matt is joining Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque, NM.

12.2020 Congratulations Dr. Chengzi Huang on completing her Ph.D on perovskite phase transition materials for MEMS actuators! Chengzi is now with ASM International in Phoenix, AZ.

1.2020 Check out our recent paper on a tunable ferroelectric-based unreleased RF resonator published in Nature MicroNano

10.2019 First HybridMEMS results on microactuators. Congrats Chengzi et al.!

6.2019 Prof. Weinstein to receive 2019 Transducers Early Career Award, (link)

6.2019 New results on ferroelectric CMOS-MEMS resonators to be presented at Transducers'19, Berlin June 23-27.

2.2018 Bichoy Bahr presents record-breaking performance 30 GHz electromechanical resonators in GlobalFoundries 14nm FinFET technology, ISSCC'18, San Francisco, CA

10.2017 Prof. Weinstein to present invited talk at Micro-Phononics Workshop (Besancon, France, Nov. 16-17)

10.2017 Prof. Weinstein to present invited talk at AVS Symposium (Tampa, FL, Oct. 31) on the "Electron-Phonon Waltz: Acoustoelectrics in MEMS"

10.2017 Exciting results on 32 GHz Resonant Fin Transistors to be presented at ISSCC'18

6.2017 Upcoming tutorial at IMS'17: Programmable RF filters based on hybrid acoustic-wave lumped-element resonators (WMA-7)
June 4-9, 2017, Honolulu, Hawai'i

5.2016 Dr. Bichoy Bahr receives MIT MTL Dissertation Award.

5.2016 Congratulations to Dr. Bichoy Bahr on completing his Ph.D.! Bichoy is joining Kilby Labs (Texas Instruments). All the best!

8.2015 Prof. Weinstein begins her position as Associate Professor at Purdue University.

5.2015 Spin Wang cofounder and CTO of TetraScience.

5.2015 Congratulations to Dr. Radhika Marathe on completing her Ph.D.! All the best at ADI!

4.2015 Congratulations to Dr. Wentao Wang on completing his Ph.D.! Best of luck at Apple!

2.2015 Congratulations to Dr. Laura Popa on completing her Ph.D.! Best of luck at ADI!

11.2014 Spin to present his work on a tapered Phononic Crystal design for dramatic reduction in SAW resonator size at MEMS'15 in Portugal in Jan 2015.

10.2014 Bichoy to present his work on a 1 GHz GaN-MMIC monolithically integrated MEMS-based oscillators at ISSCC'15 in San Francisco in Feb 2015.

9.2014 HybridMEMS welcomes its newest members, Tianyi Zeng and Matt Storey.

5.2014 Congratulations to Laura on her FCS'14 Best Paper Award!!

3.2014 HybridMEMS welcomes its newest member, Sophia Bhave, born 3/17/14. She is happy, healthy, and rambunctious.

3.2014 Spin and Laura will present two papers at Hilton Head 2014 in Hilton Head Island, SC, June 8-12, 2014.

3.2014 Laura and Bichoy will present two papers at IFCS 2014 in Taipei, Taiwan, May 19-22, 2014.

12.2013 Congratulations to Subra for completing his S.M.!

8.2013 Congratulations to Bethany for completing her M.Eng.! Bethany is joining Air Force Research Lab in Alburquerque, NM.

7.2013 Prof. Weinstein promoted to Associate Professor

5.2013 Congratulations to Steven for completing his S.M.! All the best to him in his Navy tour!

4.2013 Laura to present "2DEG Electrodes for Piezoelectric Transduction of AlGaN/GaN MEMS Resonators" at IFCS 2013 in Prague, Czech Republic, July 21-25, 2013.

2.2013 Prof. Weinstein will deliver an invited talk at the IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium IFCS 2013 in Prague, Czech Republic.

2.2013 Laura to present "Switchable Piezoelectric Transduction in AlGaN/GaN MEMS Resonators" at Transducers 2013 in Barcelona, Spain, June 16-20, 2013.

2.2013 Wen-Chien to present "Fully Differential CMOS-MEMS Square-Plate Oxide Resonators with Embedded Poly-Silicon Electrodes" at Transducers 2013 in Barcelona, Spain, June 16-20, 2013.

12.2012 Wentao's work on Unreleased MEMS resonators is featured as a conference highlight at IEDM 2012.
This work presents the first unreleased MEMS resonator driven and sensed electrostatically with Deep Trench capacitors, with the highest Q of any Si unreleased MEMS resonator to date. A 3.3 GHz unreleased Si resonator is demonstrated with quality factor Q of over 2000 and motional impedance Rx of 1.2 kÎ©.

9.2012 Prof. Weinstein recieves the Intel Early Career Award.

8.2012 Wentao to present his work on Deep Trench unreleased resonators at IEDM 2012:
"Deep Trench Capacitor Drive of a 3.3 GHz Unreleased Si MEMS Resonator," W. Wang, D. Weinstein

2.2012 Prof. Weinstein is granted the NSF CAREER Award. MIT EECS announcement.

2.2012 "Si-based unreleased hybrid MEMS-CMOS resonators in 32nm technology" presented by Radhika Marathe at MEMS'12 in Paris (Jan 29-Feb 2). This work presents the first hybrid RF MEMS-CMOS resonators demonstrated in Silicon at the transistor level of IBMâ€™s 32nm SOI CMOS process, without the need for any post-processing or packaging. The unreleased, Si bulk acoustic resonators operating at 10-12 GHz are driven capacitively and sensed using a Field Effect Transistor (FET).

06.2011 FCS'11: "Acoustic Bragg reflectors for Q-enhancement of unreleased MEMS resonators," published on analysis and simulation for optimal design of bulk-mode unreleased resonators using acoustic Bragg reflectors (ABR) to confine vibrations. 1D and 2D ABRs are compared with phononic crystal performance for unreleased devices.

02.2011 Wentao Wang to present "Acoustic Bragg reflectors for Q-enhancement of unreleased MEMS resonators," at IEEE FCS 2011, San Francisco, CA, May 1-5, 2011.

01.2011 MEMS'11: "An unreleased mm-wave resonant body transistor" published on the demonstration of an unreleased Resonant Body Transistor operating at 39 GHz, surrounded on all sides by SiO2. An f.Q product of 5e12 is comparable to most released Si-based resonators at octaves lower frequency.

10.2010 Wentao Wang to present "An unreleased mm-wave resonant body transistor," at IEEE MEMS 2011, Cancun, Mexico, Jan. 23-27, 2011.

06.2010 "Acoustic Resonance in an Independent-Gate FinFET" presented at Hilton Head 2010. This device demonstrates 1st harmonic acoustic resonance at 37 GHz with a Q of 560 using a standard 2 port measurement.

04.2010 DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA) for "Multi-GHz Acoustic Resonance in Transistors"

03.2010 "The Resonant Body Transistor" published in Nano Letters.