Vibration Identification of Folded-MEMS Comb Drive Resonators

Natural frequency and frequency response are two important indicators for the performances of resonant microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices. This paper analytically and numerically investigates the vibration identification of the primary resonance of one type of folded-MEMS comb drive resonator. The governing equation of motion, considering structure and electrostatic nonlinearities, is firstly introduced. To overcome the shortcoming of frequency assumption in the literature, an improved theoretical solution procedure combined with the method of multiple scales and the homotopy concept is applied for primary resonance solutions in which frequency shift due to DC voltage is thoroughly considered. Through theoretical predictions and numerical results via the finite difference method and fourth-order Runge-Kutta simulation, we find that the primary frequency response actually includes low and high-energy branches when AC excitation is small enough. As AC excitation increases to a certain value, both branches intersect with each other. Then, based on the variation properties of frequency response branches, hardening and softening bending, and the ideal estimation of dynamic pull-in instability, a zoning diagram depicting extreme vibration amplitude versus DC voltage is then obtained that separates the dynamic response into five regions. Excellent agreements between the theoretical predictions and simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the analyses.