High-Q micromechanical resonators in a two-dimensional phononic crystal slab

By creating line defects in the structure of a phononic crystal (PC) made by etching a hexagonal array of holes in a 15 μm thick slab of silicon, high-Q PC resonators are fabricated using a complimentary-metal-oxide-semiconductor-compatible process. The complete phononic band gap of the PC structure supports resonant modes with quality factors of more than 6000 at frequencies as high as 126 MHz. The confinement of acoustic energy is achieved by using only a few PC layers confining the cavity region. The calculated frequencies of resonance of the structure using finite element method are in a very good agreement with the experimental data. The performance of these PC resonator structures makes them excellent candidates for wireless communication and sensing applications.