Most modern devices, starting from the simplest electronic clocks, use special components called clock oscillators, which, when a suitable signal is applied to them, start to produce oscillations with a strictly specified frequency. More complex microprocessor-based devices usually need several different clock frequencies, which is solved by installing several independent oscillators, the basis of which is an element called a quartz resonator. Scientists at the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) at Argonne National Laboratory have found a way to increase the functionality of clocks. The microelectromechanical device they created is capable of producing several reference frequencies at once, which will simplify electronic device circuits by replacing several clock oscillators with a single universal one.
“If you excite a new oscillator in the right way, its structure begins to oscillate in a complex way, and the spectrum of these oscillations is spread out into several independent frequencies, evenly distributed over the operating range “- says Daniel Lopez (Daniel Lopez), head of the research group, Now, instead of installing in each device resonator with the necessary characteristics, we can install a single device capable of producing signals of several necessary frequencies at once”.
A little bigger than a grain of salt, the new resonator is the electrical embodiment of the so-called frequency comb, a device now widely used in optics and laser technology. It is called a comb because the frequencies it generates, which are presented as a graph, look very much like the teeth of a comb.
The microelectromechanical resonator acquired the properties of a frequency comb due to the complex nature of the vibrations of its active element. This element performs two kinds of vibrations at once – the traditional linear vibrations, from one side of the resonator to the other, and the vibrations of “twisting”. Despite the apparent simplicity of it all, the motion of the resonator is described by elaborate mathematical equations, which were compiled by a team of experts in the field of non-linear dynamics.
In addition to its use in electronic devices as a clock, the new resonator can be used to study certain types of dynamic processes in mechanical, optical and biological systems. It can become a micromechanical component of a device that mimics as realistically as possible the way in which neurons respond to external stimuli or stimuli. Of course, such components will not create a platform for universal and powerful artificial intelligence systems, but such elements will be able to give a small fraction of the intelligence to devices that need this ability.
The next steps that scientists intend to take will be to create higher-frequency variants of frequency combs capable of producing frequencies close to the clock frequencies of modern microprocessors. In parallel with this, scientists will try to increase the number of comb “teeth”, i.e. frequencies, which will be produced by new generators.