Numerical Simulation of Temperature Effects on a Silicon MEMS Resonator for Reliable Temperature Sensing Application

Temperature is a crucial environmental fact for power devices, sensing equipment or computing systems. MEMS resonator-based temperature sensors have been widely used in these areas due to their high performance, high reliability and low-cost production. Changes in temperature can cause variations in the elastic modulus and coefficient of thermal expansion of silicon, leading to shifts in resonant frequency. To achieve high-sensitivity and high-precision temperature sensors, it is necessary to modulate the temperature coefficient of frequency (TCF) of a MEMS resonator. This paper proposes numerical analysis of the temperature effects on a silicon MEMS resonator with degenerated doping. Temperature theoretically influences the Young's modulus of the silicon material within a I<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup>BAR structure. Finite element simulations are conducted on the degenerately doped silicon resonator, by analyzing the temperature impact on resonant modes, S-parameter and Q-factor. The results reveals that the TCF of the resonator in the LE mode is approximately −22.88 ppm/°C and the Q value changes from 71632 to 71711 in the temperature range of −40 to 85°C.