IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, VOL. 59, NO.

1, JANUARY 2012 87

Temperature Compensation of Silicon Resonators via

Degenerate Doping
Ashwin K. Samarao, Member, IEEE, and Farrokh Ayazi, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—This paper demonstrates the dependence of temper-
ature coefficient of frequency (TCF) of silicon micromechanical
resonators on charge carrier concentration. TCF compensation is
demonstrated by degenerate doping of silicon bulk acoustic res-
onators (SiBARs) using both boron and aluminum dopants. The
native TCF of −33 ppm/◦ C for silicon resistivity of > 103 Ω · cm
is shown to reduce to −1.5 ppm/◦ C at ultralow resistivity of
∼ 10−4 Ω · cm using relatively slow diffusion-based boron dop-
ing. However, the faster thermomigration-based aluminum doping
offers TCF reduction to as low as −2.7 ppm/◦ C with much
reduced processing time. A very high Q of 28 000 at 100 MHz is
measured for a temperature-compensated SiBAR.
Index Terms—Aluminum thermomigration, degenerate
boron doping, silicon micromechanical resonators, temperature
compensation.
I. I NTRODUCTION
A FTER nearly two decades of research and development,
the manufacturability and reliability of silicon resonator
technology are successfully established to enable their wide-
spread commercialization and insertion. Currently, they are
being used as drop in replacements for quartz crystals as well
as integrated modules for frequency and timing applications [1],
[2]. Their small size, ease of fabrication, frequency scalability,
and high-quality factors (≥ 10 000) along with moderate mo-
tional resistances (∼ a few 100 Ω at ≥ 100 MHz) persuaded
efforts to tailor these devices for oscillators and resonant sensor
applications [3]–[5]. However, one of the most dominant draw-
backs of silicon resonators has been their large temperature
coefficient of frequency (TCF). The resonance frequency of
the silicon microresonator decreases with increasing temper-
ature, thereby exhibiting a negative yet almost linear TCF of
approximately −30 ppm/◦ C. Such a TCF is significantly larger
in magnitude than that of the worst AT-cut quartz crystals [6].
Hence, considerable research has been carried out to reduce the
TCF of single-crystal silicon (SCS) microresonators.
There exist system-level approaches to temperature com-
pensation that require tuning or ovenization of the resonator.
One approach to temperature compensation is to use the sili-
Manuscript received July 11, 2011; revised October 7, 2011; accepted
October 11, 2011. Date of publication November 3, 2011; date of cur-
rent version December 23, 2011. This work was supported by Integrated
Device Technology (IDT), Inc. The review of this paper was arranged by
Editor A. M. Ionescu.
A. K. Samarao is with Robert Bosch Research and Technology Center, Palo
Alto, CA 94304 USA.
F. Ayazi is with the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia
Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0250 USA.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TED.2011.2172613
con microresonator-based oscillator in a feedback loop and to
tune its frequency electronically to compensate for temperature
changes [7]. This is somewhat more challenging to accomplish
in bulk- than in flexural-mode resonators because the electrosta-
tic tunability of the bulk-mode resonators is substantially less
than that of the flexural-mode resonators [8]. Another possible
approach is to enclose the resonator in a thermally isolated
“micro oven” whose temperature is kept constant through the
use of heating elements [9], [10] or by running a current
through the structural body of the resonator [8]. However,
need for additional circuitry (and thereby chip area) and an
increase in the overall power consumption are the two most
significant problems in these active temperature compensation
techniques. Hence, it is desirable to have passive techniques
that compensate for most of the TCF, if not entirely, so that
active compensation techniques can be used in conjunction to
compensate for the rest to achieve zero-TCF resonators without
excessive power consumption and calibration.
The most common passive TCF compensation technique is
based on using a composite structure, such as silicon dioxide
and silicon, whose respective stiffness changes with temper-
ature in opposite ways. Such an approach of using a positive
TCF material to compensate for negative TCF dates back to the
early 1980s [11] but is still the object of much active research
[12]–[14]. However, the acoustic loss at the interface of the
different materials in the composite structure loads quality
factor Q, while the stress mismatch at such an interface might
lead to hysteresis. Further, dielectric charging has been reported
in thermally oxidized capacitive silicon resonators, which are
known to cause a drift in frequency over time [15]. Thus, since
passive temperature compensation techniques are desired, an
alternative to composite resonator structures is needed. This
paper addresses the issue by identifying the dependence of
TCF on charge carrier concentration in the resonating silicon
microstructure and proposes degenerate doping of silicon for
TCF compensation.
II. SiBAR
Temperature compensation via degenerate doping is demon-
strated using single-crystal silicon bulk acoustic resonators
(SiBARs) (see Fig. 1). A SiBAR consists of a resonating sus-
pended SCS bar separated by narrow air gaps from two identical
drive/sense polysilicon electrodes. The suspended microstruc-
ture is supported using narrow tethers at its shorter edges,
which also provide electrical contact to dc polarization voltage
Vp that is applied at the Vp pads. Now an ac signal applied
at the drive electrode results in a time-varying electrostatic
force applied across the air gap onto the corresponding face

0018-9383/$26.00 © 2011 IEEE

88
Fig. 1. SEM image of a 100-MHz SiBAR. (W = 40 μm; L = 10 × W =
400 μm; T = 10 μm). E and ρ are the Young’s modulus and density of silicon.
Fig. 2. Illustration showing (a) equivalent HH and LH energy surfaces of
the valence band in silicon that contain most of the holes at steady-state and
(b) propagation of acoustic waves splits the equivalent surfaces leading to a
flow of holes from HH to LH. E and k are the electronic energy and wave
vector, respectively.
of the resonator. At target frequency f0 determined by W ,
the resulting width-extensional mode (WEM) of resonance [see
Fig. 2(b)] modulates the transduction air gap on the other side
inducing a voltage on the sense electrode. The SiBARs used in
this work were transduced using very narrow 100-nm air gaps
fabricated using the HARPSS process [16].
III. TCF C OMPENSATION VIA D EGENERATE D OPING
The propagation of an acoustic wave through a solid material
is typically characterized by an alternating set of compressional
and dilational forces that perturb the periodicity of the atomic
lattice during wave propagation. In a semiconductor such as sil-
icon, such a perturbation of atomic periodicity directly impacts
its electronic band structure. For example, at steady-state, the
valence band of silicon is made up of three energy surfaces
in k-space, two of which are equivalent and are energetically
favorable to contain almost all the holes [see Fig. 2(a)]. The
resulting longitudinal strain due to the WEM of resonance in
a SiBAR splits the equivalent energy bands, leading to a flow
of holes from the heavy-hole (HH) to the more energetically
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, VOL. 59, NO. 1, JANUARY 2012
Fig. 3. Illustration showing (a) equivalent HH and LH energy surfaces of
the valence band in silicon that are (b) permanently split due to the large
compressional strain from the very high boron doping of the silicon crystal.
E and k are the electronic energy and wave vector, respectively.
favorable light-hole (LH) band [see Fig. 2(b)] [17], [18]. The
net flow of holes and thereby the electronic energy of the system
increases with increasing temperature. A similar analogy exists
for the electrons in the conduction band of silicon. Per the
conservation of energy principle, such a temperature-dependent
increase in the electronic energy manifests itself as a corre-
sponding decrease in the elastic energy of the system. Thus,
a progressive reduction in the stiffness (i.e., Young’s modulus
(E)) of the resonating silicon microstructure and thereby its
resonance frequency is observed with increasing temperature
(i.e., TCF). Although linear thermal expansion coefficient α of
silicon also contributes to the TCF, its contribution is negligible
compared with the temperature coefficient of Young’s modulus
(TCE). Temperature compensation techniques that have been
reported to date combat the effect of TCE, whereas this work
targets the manipulation of charge carriers that cause it in the
first place [19].
Thus, a momentary strain produced by the propagation of the
acoustic waves is understood to create a temperature-dependent
change in the electronic and elastic energies of the system. Such
an effect of the momentary strain could be made minimal in
comparison if a larger permanent strain could be created in the
silicon crystal. For example, a boron atom that has a smaller
radius than silicon atom strongly bonds to only three of the four
adjacent silicon atoms when diffused into the crystal lattice. At
very high doping levels, such an atomic arrangement produces
a strong shear strain in the silicon lattice, which is sufficient to
create a large permanent separation between the equivalent LH
and HH valence bands. As a result, the majority of the holes
permanently shift from the HH to the LH band, thereby almost
depleting the holes from the former (see Fig. 3) [20].
The effect of any additional band splitting caused by the
propagation of acoustic waves in such a highly-doped SiBAR
now becomes minimal in comparison for two reasons: first, very
few holes are available in the almost depleted HH band of a
highly doped silicon to flow to the LH band; second, the energy
required to flow from HH to LH is much larger compared with a
SAMARAO AND AYAZI: TEMPERATURE COMPENSATION OF SILICON VIA DEGENERATE DOPING
Fig. 4. Illustration of the minimized flow of holes in the valence band of
silicon during acoustic transduction in a very highly boron-doped SiBAR.
nonhighly doped silicon, thereby making such a transition least
energetically favored (see Fig. 4).
As a result, the momentary flow of holes from HH to LH is
significantly minimized. Thus, a considerable reduction in the
variation of the electrical and elastic energies of the system with
temperature is effected, thereby resulting in TCF compensation.
At degenerate levels of boron doping, the acoustic wave can
potentially be shielded entirely from the k-space contours of the
valence band, which, in turn, should completely compensate the
TCE component of the TCF, i.e.,
TCE + α
TCF = . (1)
2
The native silicon TCE of ∼ −57 ppm/◦ C and α of ∼
−3 ppm/◦ C yield a TCF of ∼ −30 ppm/◦ C in silicon microres-
onators. Upon complete TCE compensation via degenerate
doping, a TCF as low as ∼ −1.5 ppm/◦ C could be achieved.
IV. TCF C OMPENSATION VIA D EGENERATE
B ORON D OPING
Both Czochralski and float-zone silicon wafer manufacturing
processes typically involve an in situ doping with either n- or
p-type dopants. Such predoped silicon wafers can be procured
as is from the wafer vendors to verify the TCF compensation
in silicon microresonators with increasing doping levels (i.e.,
decreasing resistivities). Thus, the proposed solution of very
high doping for TCF compensation can be easily verified for
any SCS microresonator design with no additional need for
processing capabilities to dope silicon.
Table I summarizes the measured TCF across various resis-
tivities from SiBARs fabricated on a 20-μm-thick boron-doped
device layer of SOI wafers as-procured from Ultrasil Corp.
(USA). Although only a minimal TCF reduction of ∼ 4 ppm/◦ C
is observed from very high to low resistivity silicon substrates,
substantial TCF reduction has been measured at very low and
ultralow resistivities. As shown in Table I, an overall TCF
reduction of 24 ppm/◦ C can be readily achieved in silicon
microresonators by opting for ultralow resistive substrates. No
significant impact was measured on the Q and insertion loss of
these microresonators across such wide range of doping levels.
It is worth mentioning that such very low and ultralow
resistivity substrates were specially ordered for the purpose
and are typically more expensive compared with the relatively
higher resistivity substrates. Such very high levels of doping
can be also achieved starting from a low resistivity substrate
89
TABLE I
M EASURED TCF IN SiBARs FABRICATED ON S ILICON WAFERS W ITH
V ERY L OW TO V ERY H IGH B ORON D OPING L EVELS
TABLE II
B ORON D OPING R ECIPE U SING S OLID AND L IQUID B ORON S OURCES
by repeated doping/annealing processes. For example, a boron-
doped resistivity of ∼ 0.01 Ω · cm resistivity has been mea-
sured to reduce to ∼ 0.001 Ω · cm after five repetitions of the
solid boron dope/anneal recipe shown in Table II. For further
reduction in resistivity, liquid spin-on-dopant boron sources
were used [Futurrex Inc. (USA), BDC1-2000]. After six repeti-
tions of spin-on-dope/anneal recipe, the boron-doped resistivity
could be further reduced from ∼ 0.001 to ∼ 0.0001 Ω · cm. In
both cases of solid and liquid dopants, the borosilicate glass
layer that forms after every dope/anneal cycle was removed us-
ing hydrofluoric acid. All the reported resistivities in this paper
were accurately measured using four-point probe measurement.
Although longer hours of processing are needed to achieve a
resistivity of ∼ 0.0001 Ω · cm (see Table II), such a resistivity
is lower than any commercially available silicon wafer. At such
doping levels, the diffusion depth of boron in silicon is typically
limited to 7 ∼ 8 μm [22]. Hence, 5-μm-thick substrates were
chosen to fabricate uniformly doped SiBARs at such degenerate
doping levels of boron in silicon. A 5-μm-thick 0.0001 Ω · cm
SiBAR is found to measure a TCF of −3.56 ppm/◦ C, which is
an order of magnitude lower than that measured at a very high
resistivity of 1000 Ω · cm (see Fig. 5). The increase in reso-
nance frequency after heavy doping is due to the increase in the
Young’s modulus of silicon and is indicative of the degenerative
doping [23]. As seen from the square of correlation coefficient
of linearity R2 reported in Fig. 5, the linearity of the TCF curve
is compromised to some extent due to degenerate boron doping.
90
Fig. 5. Order of magnitude reduction in TCF measured at a boron-doped
SiBAR resistivity of 0.0001 Ω · cm compared with 1000 Ω · cm.
Fig. 6. Measured response of the degenerately doped SiBAR with a TCF of
−3.56 ppm/◦ C showing a quality factor Q of 33 000 in vacuum.
Such degenerately doped 0.0001 Ω · cm 5-μm-thick SiBARs
measure a Q of 33 000 (versus 35 000 for a nondegenerately
doped 5-μm-thick SiBAR with a resistivity of 0.01 Ω · cm) at
Vp of 20 V in vacuum (see Fig. 6). This indicates a minimal
effect on the acoustic loss in silicon microresonators from
longer hours of repeated thermal cycling during the doping
process.
However, upon any further doping, boron is observed to
outdiffuse from the surface of the silicon, leaving behind a
relatively porous silicon surface. Such a surface of silicon
as-observed after seven repetitions of the spin-on-dope/anneal
processes is shown in Fig. 7. The outdiffusion is indicative of
doping levels that surpass the solid solubility limit of boron
in silicon (∼ 2 × 1020 atoms/cm3 ). At such levels of doping,
the resistivity values could not be accurately measured and
hence are not reported. The SiBARs fabricated at such doping
levels measure the lowest recorded TCF of −1.43 ppm/◦ C.
Interestingly, no further reduction in TCF was measured even
after ten repetitions of spin-on-dope/anneal processes (see
Fig. 8). Interestingly, Wang et al. had theoretically predicted
a positive TCF with increasing levels of boron doping in silicon
microresonators [24]. To the contrary, this work experimentally
proves that positive TCFs were not measured even at degenerate
levels of boron doping in silicon. Further, the lowest measured
TCF value of ∼ −1.5 ppm/◦ C is understood to be the sole
contribution of linear thermal expansion component α after
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, VOL. 59, NO. 1, JANUARY 2012
Fig. 7. SEM images showing the observed outdiffusion of boron from the
silicon surface after seven repetitions of the spin-on-dope/anneal processes.
Fig. 8. Saturation of TCF at ∼ −1.5 ppm/◦ C of the 5-μm-thick SiBAR after
seven repetitions of spin-on-dope/anneal processes.
complete compensation of TCE [see (1)]. It is to be noted that
such outdiffusion of boron results in lattice damage to silicon
that reflects as a relatively reduced Q of 20 000 in vacuum.
Thus, degenerate boron doping has been successfully demon-
strated to offer a reduction from a native TCF of −33 to
−1.5 ppm/◦ C in silicon micromechanical resonators. Similar
temperature compensation has been also recently demonstrated
in thermally actuated silicon microresonators using degener-
ate phosphorous doping [25]. However, the longer hours of
processing needed to achieve such degenerate doping levels call
for a faster alternative. Further, the difficulty in achieving very
high doping levels for thicker substrates limits the proposed
TCF compensation technique to substrates that are thinner than
7 ∼ 8 μm. The next section addresses both these issues by
presenting a boron-assisted aluminum doping technique that
is capable of achieving very high doping levels within few
minutes of processing in much thicker substrates.
V. TCF C OMPENSATION VIA B ORON -A SSISTED
A LUMINUM D OPING
Boron diffuses as an interstitial dopant [26], which demands
for longer hours of annealing to become electrically active. On
the other hand, aluminum (also a p-type dopant) becomes read-
ily electrically active by diffusion via self-interstitial mecha-
nism [27]. It has been shown that aluminum can thermomigrate
against a temperature gradient into hundreds-of-micrometers-
thick silicon within few tens of minutes [28]. Thermomigration
SAMARAO AND AYAZI: TEMPERATURE COMPENSATION OF SILICON VIA DEGENERATE DOPING
Fig. 9. Schematic of the wafer-level aluminum thermomigration process.
is typically performed by patterning aluminum on one side of
the wafer while the other side is radiatively heated to approxi-
mately 1000 ◦ C. Such one-sided heating results in a temperature
gradient across the thickness of the wafer. Once above the
eutectic point (577 ◦ C), the aluminum melts and dissolves some
of the silicon at the surface. The resulting droplet follows the
thermal gradient toward the hot surface. As the droplet moves,
the warmer side of the droplet dissolves more silicon, and the
cooler side of the droplet epitaxially resolidifies; the resolidified
material has an aluminum concentration determined by the
solid solubility limit for aluminum in silicon at the solidification
temperature, which is approximately 2 × 1019 atoms/cm3 [29].
The process is known to be highly anisotropic and relatively
fast, with droplets traveling through a 300-μm-thick silicon
wafer in less than 10 min [30]. The uniformity and speed of
aluminum thermomigration is known to be enhanced by the
presence of boron atoms in silicon [27]. Further, both boron
and aluminum dopants are electrically active and will contribute
to TCE compensation. Thus, such a boron-assisted aluminum
thermomigration is a faster alternative to degenerate boron
doping for TCF reduction.
This was investigated by evaporating 200 Å of aluminum
onto the surface of 20-μm-thick SiBARs fabricated on a boron-
doped ∼ 0.01 Ω · cm silicon wafer. The required temperature
gradient is created in a furnace by turning off one of the
many coil heaters of the furnace (see Fig. 9). The wafer is
positioned in the furnace at the boundary of the hot and cold
regions, with the aluminum-deposited side facing away from
the heat. The temperature gradient across the thickness of the
wafer drives the aluminum to thermomigrate into the resonating
silicon bulk. After 1 h of thermomigration in nitrogen ambient,
the TCF of the SiBAR reduces by 24 ppm/◦ C, from −27.8 to
−3.8 ppm/◦ C.
The reduced TCF is equivalent to that measured at a boron-
doped resistivity of ∼ 0.0001 Ω · cm (see Fig. 6). Thus, a boron
doping duration of approximately 90 h (see Table II) for a
similar TCF reduction on a 5-μm-thick substrates can be alter-
natively realized using an hour of aluminum thermomigration
on substrates that are 20 μm or thicker. On the downside,
due to the rapid thermomigration and the large temperature
gradient across the entire wafer, some structural damage could
be observed on the surface of the resonators. As a result, a
considerably reduced Q of 16 000 has been observed at vacuum
in wafer-level thermomigrated SiBARs.
Unlike boron doping that is performed on a plain SOI
wafer prior to the fabrication of the resonators, the wafer-level
91
Fig. 10. Schematic of the device-level aluminum thermomigration process.
(a) Released SiBAR. (b) Blanket deposition of 500 Å aluminum. (c) Joule
heat the support tethers and SiBAR at 120 mA for 10 min. (d) Aluminum
thermomigrated SiBAR at room temperature; wirebond traces are visible in
(d) since the same device was used for SEM images.
aluminum thermomigration was carried out postfabrication.
Hence, stress due to thermal gradients impacts the Q and
long-term stability of these resonators. On the other hand,
a device-level thermomigration process could circumvent the
problem while offering the expected reduction in TCF. Fig. 10
shows the schematic and SEM images of such a device-level
aluminum thermomigration process developed for SiBARs. A
500-Å-thin layer of aluminum was evaporated onto the SiBAR
[see Fig. 10(b)]. A current of 120 mA was passed for 10 min
through the SiBAR resonator element via the support tethers
[see Fig. 10(c)] [31]. At such high currents, the narrow support
elements Joule heat to ∼ 1000 ◦ C while the wider SiBAR
reaches the Al–Si eutectic temperature, thereby creating the
necessary temperature gradient [see Fig. 10(c)]. Aluminum
on top of the relatively cold SiBAR laterally diffuses through
the silicon toward the hot support elements, thereby doping it
[see Fig. 10(d)]. A closer look at the thermomigrated surface
(see Fig. 11) shows regions of Al–Si eutectic alloy alongside
exposed silicon where aluminum has completely diffused into
the bulk of the resonator. The short duration of the process is
insufficient to thermomigrate the entire thickness of aluminum,
thereby leaving behind some residues (due to thicker than
desired Al), which could be thermomigrated with further Joule
heating. Although aluminum is deposited on the Vp pads as well
[see Fig. 10(b)], its relatively larger cross section remains below
the Al–Si eutectic temperature during Joule heating. Hence, no
thermomigration has been observed to occur on the Vp pads.
A reduction in TCF by 14 ppm/◦ C (from −22.13 to
−7.93 ppm/◦ C) has been measured over 10 min of device-level
thermomigration on a ∼ 0.001 Ω · cm SiBAR. From the values
in Table I, it can be inferred that a TCF value corresponding
to very low resistivity of a silicon wafer can be reduced to its
ultralow resistive counterpart within few minutes of aluminum
thermomigration. The passage of current for longer durations
92
Fig. 11. SEM showing a close-up of the aluminum thermomigrated SiBAR in
Fig. 10(d).
Fig. 12. Measured response of a 20-μm-thick [∼ 0.001 Ω · cm; boron-doped]
SiBAR after device-level thermomigration with 500 Å of aluminum at 120 mA
for 10 min.
might lead to plastic deformation at the narrow support tethers,
thereby causing a failure of resonator operation. However, if
the supports are redesigned to be wider, thermomigration could
be performed for longer durations to achieve further reduction
in TCF. Unlike boron doping and wafer-level thermomigra-
tion processes, device-level aluminum thermomigration is best
suited to be a postfabrication postpackaging technique, wherein
the TCF can be programmed to a desired value using Joule
heating as an electrical calibration step.
Minimal or no structural damage has been observed from the
device-level thermomigration process as evident from a Q of
29 000 measured from these devices in vacuum. The measured
insertion loss of 39.5 dB is typical of 20-μm-thick SiBARs with
a capacitive air gap of ∼100 nm at Vp of 20 V (see Fig. 12).
A similar device-level thermomigration was also performed
on a 20-μm-thick degenerately boron-doped ∼ 0.0001 Ω · cm
SiBAR. The TCF curve before thermomigration exhibits an
interesting anomalous behavior, as shown in Fig. 13. This is
thought to arise due to the nonuniform doping profile at such
very high doping levels along the 20-μm thickness of the de-
vice. Aluminum thermomigration is found to restore the linear-
ity of the TCF curve and offer a TCF as low as −2.72 ppm/◦ C
while maintaining a high Q of 28 000 in vacuum (see Fig. 14).
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, VOL. 59, NO. 1, JANUARY 2012
Fig. 13. TCF of a 20-μm-thick [∼ 0.0001 Ω · cm; boron-doped] SiBAR
before and after device-level thermomigration with 500 Å of aluminum at
120 mA for 10 min.
Fig. 14. Measured response of a 20-μm-thick [∼ 0.0001 Ω · cm; boron-
doped] SiBAR after device-level thermomigration with 500 Å of aluminum at
120 mA for 10 min.
VI. C ONCLUSION
Temperature compensation of silicon micromechanical res-
onators has been achieved using degenerate boron doping
and boron-assisted aluminum doping. A starting TCF of
−33 ppm/◦ C is reduced to −1.5 ppm/◦ C by degenerate boron
doping of the silicon microresonator. Both wafer- and device-
level aluminum thermomigration techniques are developed as
faster alternatives to the relatively slower diffusion-based boron
doping process. Although the former is found to compromise
on the Q due to stress from the thermal gradient, the latter
circumvents the problem and offers low TCF along with low
insertion loss and high Q.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the staff of the Nanotech-
nology Research Center (NRC) at the Georgia Institute of
Technology for their assistance.
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Ashwin K. Samarao (S’07–M’11) was born in
Chennai, India, on February 18, 1983. He received
the B.E. (Hons.) degree in electrical and computer
engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology
and Science, Pilani, India, in 2004, the M.S. degree
in electrical and computer engineering from the Uni-
versity of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, in 2006, and
the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineer-
ing from the Integrated Microelectromechanical Sys-
tems Laboratory, Georgia Institute of Technology,
Atlanta, in May 2011.
Subsequently he joined Integrated Device Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA, as
an intern, where he worked on implementing the ideas he developed as a gradu-
ate student to engineer a MEMS-based timing solution. He is currently a MEMS
Research Engineer with Robert Bosch Research and Technology Center, Palo
Alto, CA. His research interests include micro- and nanoelectromechanical
resonators, RF-MEMS and inertial sensors, CMOS-MEMS integration, and
micro- and nanofabrication process development.
Dr. Samarao was the recipient of the Best Student Paper Award at the IEEE
International Frequency Control Symposium in 2010.
Farrokh Ayazi (S’96–M’00–SM’05) received the
B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the Uni-
versity of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, in 1994 and the M.S.
and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1997 and
2000, respectively.
He joined the faculty of the Georgia Institute of
Technology, Atlanta, in December 1999, where he
is currently a Professor in the School of Electrical
and Computer Engineering. His research interests are
in the areas of integrated micro- and nanoelectro-
mechanical resonators, interface IC design for MEMS and sensors, inertial
sensors, RF MEMS, and microfabrication techniques.
Prof. Ayazi is a 2004 recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, the 2004
Richard M. Bass Outstanding Teacher Award (determined by the vote of the
ECE senior class), and the Georgia Tech College of Engineering Cutting
Edge Research Award for 2001–2002. He is an editor for the IEEE/ASME
J OURNAL OF M ICROELECTROMECHANICAL S YSTEMS. He served on the
technical program committee of the IEEE International Solid State Circuits
Conference for six years (2004–2009). He and his students won the best
paper awards at Transducers 2011, the IEEE International Frequency Control
Symposium in 2010, and IEEE Sensors conference in 2007. He is the Co-
Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Qualtré Inc., a spin-out from his
research laboratory that commercializes multiaxis bulk-acoustic-wave silicon
gyroscopes and multidegrees-of-freedom inertial sensors for consumer elec-
tronics and personal navigation systems.