Microelectromechanical systems in electrical metrology

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) will have an important role in metrol ogy The essential features of a MEMS are 1) a piece of single crystal silicon forming a spring; 2) metallized surfaces of silicon structures that define an electrode geome try; 3) electrostatic forces between surfaces in a vacuum. With an electrostatic drive and readout such a system system will dissipate very little power. In addition, compared to semiconducting devices, microe lectromechanical components are large in size, and hence a low 1/f noise le vel is expected. We show that a MEMS can be used, in principle, to realize both a de and an ac voltage reference, an ac/dc converter, a de current ref erence, a low frequency voltage divider, a microwave and millimeter wave de tector, etc, Unfortunately, existing MEMS technologies, where uncoated sili con structures form the electrodes, cannot be used due to trapped charges i n silicon dioxide or on its surface. Thus, metallization of the surface is needed. We report preliminary results of our de voltage reference showing a relative fluctuation level below 1 muV/V.