Patent ID: 8836440

Claim:
An electromechanical resonant apparatus, comprising: a doubly clamped nanowire electromechanical resonator having a fundamental flexural frequency ω and having sufficient conductivity to provide a piezoresistive signal, said doubly clamped nanowire electromechanical resonator having an excitation input terminal, a bias input terminal, and a resonator output terminal, said doubly clamped nanowire electromechanical resonator configured to generate a piezoresistive signal at a frequency of 2ω (twice said fundamental flexural frequency ω) in response to an applied excitation signal having an amplitude greater than an oscillation threshold, and configured to generate a piezoresistive signal at the fundamental flexural frequency ω in response to an applied excitation signal having an amplitude less than said oscillation threshold, and to provide said generated signal at said resonator output terminal; an excitation source configured to provide at an output terminal thereof said excitation signal to said excitation input terminal of said doubly clamped nanowire electromechanical resonator, said excitation source having a terminal configured to be connected to a reference voltage, and having a control for controlling at least one of an amplitude and a frequency of said excitation signal; and a bias source configured to provide at an output terminal thereof a bias signal to said bias input terminal of said doubly clamped nanowire electromechanical resonator, said bias source having a terminal configured to be connected to a reference voltage, and having a control for controlling at least one of an amplitude and a frequency of said bias signal.