Selective coating deposition on high-Q single-crystal silicon resonators for the investigation of thermal noise statistical properties

Silicon resonators are widely used in a large class of applications including sensing and actuation, signal processing and energy harvesting. Very often, their application as sensors requires the deposition of metallic thin films or dielectric coatings, to set the electrical conductivity, the optical coupling, or other physical-chemical properties of the device. Invariably coatings degrade the quality factor (Q) of resonance by increasing the amount of energy dissipated during vibration. In this paper, we show a class of resonators used for the investigation of thermal noise statistical properties in non-thermodynamic equilibrium. Design strategies to preserve the silicon Q-factor are discussed.