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Nature Nanotechnology volume 3, pages 319–320 (2008)Cite this article

In the past, nanoelectromechanical resonators have been passive devices that required external oscillators to keep them working, so the development of a self-sustaining resonator powered only by a d.c. voltage is a major advance.

Almost all electronic devices — from wristwatches to radios to computers — rely on electrical oscillators in some way. However, all oscillators are prone to losses, so it is necessary to keep adding energy to keep them oscillating. The most intuitive way to do this is to use feedback: take a small fraction of the output of the oscillator, amplify it and then, somehow, feed this amplified signal back into the oscillator circuit without disturbing its overall balance too much. This approach to building self-sustaining oscillator circuits is also used in other kinds of devices such as lasers. On page 342 of this issue, Philip Feng, Christopher White, Ali Hajimiri and Michael Roukes at Caltech report the first example of a self-sustaining nanoelectromechanical oscillator1. Such devices could have applications in sensing, precision timekeeping and communications.

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Figure 1: In the past, nanoelectromechanical resonators have required an external oscillator, such as an applied a.c. voltage, to compensate for losses.

References

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  1. Kamil L. Ekinci is in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA. ekinci@bu.edu,

    Kamil L. Ekinci

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  1. Kamil L. Ekinci
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Ekinci, K. All you need is feedback. Nature Nanotech 3, 319–320 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2008.142

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