Patent attributes
A micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) comprises a substrate incorporating an oscillatory ring, forcing electrodes for driving the ring into resonance, and sensing electrodes providing an electrical output signal dependent on oscillation of the ring as a result of such forcing and any externally applied force. A positive feedback circuit is provided for feeding back a signal dependent on the output signal of the sensing electrodes to the forcing electrodes in order to sustain oscillation of the ring. The use of positive feedback to drive the forcing electrodes in order to sustain oscillation of the ring is highly advantageous in such an application since it produces a system which exhibits very low phase noise of a magnitude considerably less than the phase noise experienced in use of a phase-lock loop circuit to sustain oscillation.
