New ways of measuring the pull-in voltage and transient behavior of parallel-plate capacitive MEMS transducers

摘要

In this paper we introduce two new ways of measuring the pull-in voltage and the transient behavior of parallel-plate capacitive microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) transducers. The advantages in the measurement speed and resolution of the so-called fast MEMS test will be discussed. Also an enhanced method, the time-resolved dynamic measurement, will be shown. With the second method, we can visualize the integral displacement of a membrane while measuring the voltage drop of a high-frequency signal over a shunt resistor/capacitor. With a more advanced charge amplifier circuit, also a force-free resonance measurement of the membrane and electrode is possible in one step. All this offers a robust and cheap option for tracing moving structures without the need of an optical line of sight.