The idea: Make much more effective use of the available spectrum with exactly defined channels, reject noise and allow signals only near a given frequency to pass.
To achieve this goal, the scientists created "nanoelectromechanical resonators" that integrate "a tiny beam of silicon that vibrates when voltage is applied." This beam, about two microns long and 130 nanometers wide, vibrate side-to-side or up and down and apparently have shown to control their vibration frequencies better than other resonators. According to the scientists, the resonators can be tuned for lower power consumption or higher performance.
"A vivid example [for this nanoresonator] is a tunable filter," said Saeed Mohammadi, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, at Purdue. "It is very difficult to make a good tunable filter with transistors, inductors and other electronic components, but a simple nanomechanical resonator can do the job with much better performance and at a fraction of the power."
According to Mohammadi, the nanoresonator can be easily mass-produced using a using silicon-on-insulator process. There was no information whether these resonators will be commercialized, but Purdue said that it has filed a patent application protecting the concept.
