Abstract

There has been much interest in the use of mechanically resonant structures as a means of measuring environmental parameters.¹ The greatest advantage of such resonator sensors is that the value of the measurand of interest is obtained by the measurement of resonant frequency of the sensor. This measurement for practical purposes is insensitive to light intensity transmission fluctuations, therefore free from corruption compared with conventional analog modulation. The measurement may also be made with extremely high accuracy. Additionally a frequency signal of the type obtained from the mechanical resonator may be transmitted along virtually any linear medium transmission line without distortion. In recent years much effort has been directed towards realizing a new class of silicon microresonator sensors for pressure, temperature, acceleration, vibration, mass flow.

© 1992 Optical Society of America