Electrostatic cantilever resonators under a double-sided pull-pull drive scheme

摘要

Electrostatically-driven, cantilever-shaped resonators under a pair of parallel-plate electrodes with the 'pull-pull drive' scheme have been demonstrated and characterized. Theoretical analyses have been established based on the force balance among the electrostatic excitation, the mechanical elastic restoring force and air damping reactions. It is found that the 'pull-pull drive' setup can exhibit nonlinear characteristic in the output response, and consequently achieve about 3.8 times the maximum resonance amplitude as compared with the conventional single electrode setup. Furthermore, by adjusting the position of the cantilever between the parallel-plate electrodes, the magnitude of pull-in voltage as well as the maximum resonance amplitude can be changed. As such, the 'pull-pull drive' scheme provides an easy and alternative way to increase the response of the electrostatically-actuated resonators for various potential applications in resonator-based sensors and actuators.