Fabrication and laser control of double-paddle silicon oscillators

We describe a fabrication technique for double-paddle oscillators based solely on wet etching, resulting in quality factors up to 8 ·105 at room temperature and in vacuum. The quality factor achieved is the highest demonstrated so far at room temperature. The fabrication procedure, not involving any dry etching step, represents a valid and low cost alternative to the other techniques previously presented. Laser excitation and resonance frequency tuning is shown to be applicable to these resonant structures and to be a useful alternative to mechanical and electrical excitation methods used so far, especially for applications in which a remote excitation system is required se.g., in a high-temperature environmentd. © 2005 American Institute of Physics. fDOI: 10.1063/1.1876972g