Post-packaging tuning of microresonators by pulsed laser deposition

This paper presents a post-packaging tuning process for microresonators by PLD (Pulsed Laser Deposition). The microresonators are first hermetically packaged using the RTP (Rapid Thermal Processing) aluminum-to-silicon nitride bonding process. The resonator mass is then altered by adding materials on the surface of the structure using PLD to achieve the desired resonant frequency. The demonstrated tuning resolution is 0.5 % per laser shot with the laser beam spot size of 25/spl times/25 /spl mu/m/sup 2/, energy of 587 mJ/cm/sup 2/, pulse duration of 6 nano second, and 0.35 /spl mu/m-thick gold film as the deposition material for comb-drive microresonators resonating at 12.45 KHz.