Characterization of a pull-in based ?g-resolution accelerometer

The pull-in time of electrostatically actuated parallel-plate microstructures enables the realization of a high-sensitivity accelerometer that uses time measurement as the transduction mechanism. The key feature is the existence of a metastable region that dominates pull-in behavior, thus making pull-in time very sensitive to external...

Closed-loop Operated Time-Based Accelerometer

A high-resolution, high dynamic range capacitive accelerometer based on pull-in time measurement is described in this paper. The high sensitivity of pull-in time can be used to implement high performance accelerometers, but non-linearity and low dynamic range compromise device performance. A closed-loop approach using an electrostatic actuation...

Squeeze-film damper design with air channels: Experimental verification

The experimental evaluation of damping-improved parallel-plate geometries is reported in this paper. An improved damper geometry with air channels was developed to address contradictory design constraints: large sensing parallel-plate area is desirable for a significant readout capacitance as well as reduced damping coefficient. Damping...

Auto-calibration of capacitive MEMS accelerometers based on pull-in voltage

This paper describes an electro-mechanical auto-calibration technique for use in capacitive MEMS accelerometers. Auto-calibration is achieved using the combined information derived from an initial measurement of the resonance frequency and the measurement of the pull-in voltages during device operation, with an estimation of process-induced...

Squeezed film damping measurements on a parallel-plate MEMS in the free molecule regime

This paper provides experimental validation of the predictions by two recent models for squeezed film damping in the free molecule regime. Measurements were carried out using a parallel-plate microstructure with a 2.29 ?m gap operated at pressures from 105 to 101 Pa (corresponding to Knudsen numbers from 0.03 to 300). Experiments are in good...

Fast step-response settling of micro electrostatic actuators operated at low air pressure using input shaping

Squeeze-film damping is highly inadequate in low-pressure systems or in systems where air pressure and/or gap dimensions are poorly defined. Input shaping has been used to circumvent the oscillations typically associated with under-damped mass-spring-damper systems and drastically decrease the settling time. The proposed method does not rely on...

A Pull-in Based Test Mechanism for Device Diagnostic and Process Characterization

A test technique for capacitive MEMS accelerometers and electrostatic microactuators, based on the measurement of pull-in voltages and resonance frequency, is described. Using this combination of measurements, one can estimate process-induced variations in the device layout dimensions as well as deviations from nominal value in material...

Read-out calibration of a SOI capacitive transducer using the pull-in voltage

Using dynamic voltage drive in a parallel-plate electrostatic actuator for full-gap travel range and positioning

Pre-distorted sinewave-driven parallel-plate electrostatic actuator for harmonic displacement

MEMS-based mechanical spectrum analyzer

Measuring and interpreting the mechanical-thermal noise spectrum in a MEMS

Analysis and analytical modeling of static pull-In with application to MEMS-based voltage reference and process monitoring

Stability of a micromechanical pull-in voltage reference

Micromechanical voltage reference using the pull-in of a beam