AbstractElectromechanical resonators and filters, such as quartz, ceramic, and surface‐acoustic wave devices, are important signal‐processing elements in communication systems. Over the past decade, there has been substantial progress in developing new types of miniaturized electromechanical resonators using microfabrication processes. For these micro‐resonators to be viable they must have high and predictable quality factors (Q). Depending on scale and geometry, the energy losses that lowerQmay come from material damping, thermoelastic damping, air damping, or radiation of elastic waves from an anchor. Of these factors, anchor losses are the least understood because such losses are due to a complex radiation phenomena in a semi‐infinite elastic half‐space. Here, we describe how anchor losses can be accurately computed using an absorbing boundary based on aperfectly matched layer(PML) which absorbs incoming waves over a wide frequency range for any non‐zero angle of incidence. We exploit the interpretation of the PML as a complex‐valued change of co‐ordinates to illustrate how one can come to a simpler finite element implementation than was given in its original presentations. We also examine the convergence and accuracy of the method, and give guidelines for how to choose the parameters effectively. As an example application, we compute the anchor loss in a micro disk resonator and compare it to experimental data. Our analysis illustrates a surprising mode‐mixing phenomenon which can substantially affect the quality of resonance. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.