New method based on electrical harmonic distortion analysis for electromechanical characterizations of MEMS devices

摘要

This paper presents a new and accurate experimental method based on electrical harmonic distortion analysis to determine mechanical characteristics (resonant frequency) of MEMS devices used in widespread applications as in energy scavenging, cantilever-based microsystems for gas sensing and atomic force microscopy or in any kind of MEMS resonators. Resonant frequencies ranging from 0.8 kHz to 5 kHz of electrostatic actuated MEMS-based harvesters have been measured by this technique with an uncertainty as low as a few parts in 10~3 constituting an outstanding result compared to the other methods.