Gratuze Mathieu, Alameh Abdul-Hafiz, Nabavi Seyedfakhreddin, Nabki Frederic
Department of Electrical Engineering, École de Technologie Supérieure, Université du Québec, Montréal, QC H3C 1K3, Canada.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University, Montréal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada.
Micromachines (Basel). 2021 Apr 16;12(4):448. doi: 10.3390/mi12040448.
Nonlinear, mechanical microelectromechanical system (MEMS) resonating structures exhibit large displacement and a relatively broad operating bandwidth. These unique features make them particularly of interest for the development of MEMS actuators and sensors. In this work, a mechanical MEMS structure allowing the designer to determine the type of nonlinearity, that is, softening or hardening, based on its anchor scheme is presented. Effects of the excitation signal on the behavior of the proposed MEMS in the frequency domain are investigated. In this regard, a comprehensive experimental comparison among the nonlinear behaviors of softening and hardening has been conducted. To reduce the hysteresis effect to a minimum, an excitation approach, which is a pulsed sweep in frequency with a discrete resolution, is presented. The maximal velocity, quality factor, bandwidth, and resonant frequency of these two types of nonlinear MEMS resonators are compared under three different types of excitation. Finally, it is shown that the performance and characteristics extracted from nonlinear mechanical MEMS resonating structures are highly dependent on the excitation method. Hence, in the present case, the apparent performances of the MEMS resonator can increase by up to 150% or decrease by up to 21%, depending on the excitation approaches. This implies the necessity of a standardized testing methodology for nonlinear MEMS resonators for given end applications.
非线性微机电系统（MEMS）谐振结构具有大位移和相对较宽的工作带宽。这些独特特性使其在MEMS致动器和传感器的开发中备受关注。在这项工作中，提出了一种机械MEMS结构，它允许设计者根据其锚定方案来确定非线性类型，即软化或硬化。研究了激励信号在频域中对所提出的MEMS行为的影响。在这方面，已经对软化和硬化的非线性行为进行了全面的实验比较。为了将滞后效应降至最低，提出了一种激励方法，即具有离散分辨率的频率脉冲扫描。在三种不同类型的激励下，比较了这两种类型的非线性MEMS谐振器的最大速度、品质因数、带宽和谐振频率。最后表明，从非线性机械MEMS谐振结构中提取的性能和特性高度依赖于激励方法。因此，在当前情况下，根据激励方法的不同，MEMS谐振器的表观性能最多可提高150%或最多降低21%。这意味着对于给定的最终应用，需要一种针对非线性MEMS谐振器的标准化测试方法。
