US Patent 7595708 - MEMS resonator array with shared beam sections

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7595708.html

Micromechanical resonators are important to high frequency electronic devices used in communications applications. This patent from Robert Bosch GmbH teaches a MEMS array resonator having an improved resonator bandwidth (Q-factor) by using shared beam sections. Claim 1 reads:

1. A MEMS array structure, comprising:

a plurality of MEMS resonators forming an array,

each MEMS resonator including a plurality of beam sections,

wherein at least one of the beam sections is a shared beam section that is also included in another of the plurality of MEMS resonators which is adjacent to the respective MEMS resonator.