MEMS frequency references and oscillators

Our research group at Stanford (http://mems.stanford.edu/smssl/) has been working on MEMS frequency references and oscillators for the past several years, and has also given rise to a silicon valley startup called SiTime. In this talk, I will give an overview of the various active and passive techniques that we have applied for the frequency control of resonant MEMS. In addition, I will also discuss a very recently developed fully-ac actuation technique for electrostatic resonators (applicable to references, gyroscopes, optical components) that prevents charge-related drifts from occurring.
Gaurav Bahl is currently working towards a Ph.D. in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, California. He received an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2008 and a B.Eng. degree from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, in 2005. His research focuses on studying the electromechanical effects of dielectric charging in MEMS, and on systems-level approaches for circumventing charging-related drift. He has studied the frequency stability of encapsulated Si-SiO2 composite micro-resonators and oscillators at Stanford, and has also worked on circumventing charge-related amplitude drift in surface electrode actuators built at Hewlett-Packard Labs.