MEMS Oscillators

When a force is applied to any object and then released that object will vibrate at its resonance frequency, also fundamental frequency; this trait is especially noticed with cantilevers and springs. The fundamental frequency is a combination of a number of traits including length and mass and is somewhat effected by pressure and temperature. Now when a force is applied at the same frequency as the resonance frequency, the amplitude of the vibrations increase dramatically and this is what we are studying.
While oscillators can have a wide variety of uses, ours tends to be most pertinent in the realm of mass detection (if you recall resonance is related to the overall mass of a device.) Our device may resonate at a certain frequency, but if any molecule were to attach to it that frequency would change based on its new mass. Some oscillators are sensitive with masses up to 0.1 micrograms. We will also be studying how pressure and temperature affect the resonance frequency of these devices.