Vibes for a silicon microclock.Vibes for a silicon microclock Tap a tuning fork and it vibrates at a characteristic frequency. A microscopic, suspended sliver of silicon, activated by a brief electrical pulse, also vibrates, though at a much higher frequency. Built into a silicon chip, such a tiny "resonator resonator /res·o·na·tor/ (rez´o-na?ter) 1. an instrument used to intensify sounds. 2. an electric circuit in which oscillations of a certain frequency are set up by oscillations of the same frequency in another " may someday serve as a simple electromechanical The use of electricity to run moving parts. Disk drives, printers and motors are examples. Electromechanical systems must be designed for the eventual deterioration of moving components that wear over time. The first TVs were electromechanical systems (see video/TV history). clock for electronic circuits or even as the basis for a miniaturized scanning tunneling microscope scanning tunneling microscope, device for studying and imaging individual atoms on the surfaces of materials. The instrument was invented in the early 1980s by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer, who were awarded the 1986 Nobel prize in physics for their work. . J. Jason Yao, now at the Rockwell International Rockwell International was the ultimate incarnation of a series of companies under the sphere of influence of Willard Rockwell, who had made his fortune after the invention and successful launch of a new bearing system for truck axles in 1919. Corp. Science Center in Thousand Oaks, Calif, and his coworkers at Cornell University have fabricated such resonators out of single crystals of silicon. In the example shown, a cross-shaped structure suspended over a silicon surface vibrates at a precise frequency. It's also possible to change this characteristic frequency by applying a voltage to the structure. |
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