Suppression of the A-f-mediated noise at the top bifurcation point in a MEMS resonator with both hardening and softening hysteretic cycles

Guillermo Sobreviela, Gabriel Vidal-Álvarez, Martín Riverola, Arantxa Uranga, Francesc Torres, Núria Barniol

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. We study the nonlinear behavior of a microelectromechanical resonator implemented using the SilTerra MEMS on CMOS platform. The resonator shows, in a same frequency response, two hysteretic cycles of different origin: mechanical and electrical. We observe that, by increasing the resonator DC voltage, the resonator goes from having a purely mechanical (hardening) nonlinear response to a purely electrical (softening) one, experiencing a mixed regime where mechanical and electrical nonlinearities coexist and partially compensate. We explain how the compensation between nonlinearities can be used to improve the phase noise of an MEMS-based oscillator. Specifically, we show that it is possible to operate the resonator at the top bifurcation point, while at the same time suppressing the amplitude-mediated frequency noise.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)59-65
JournalSensors and Actuators, A: Physical
Volume256
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2017

Keywords

  • A-f effect
  • Capacitive transduction
  • Microelectromechanical systems
  • Nonlinear resonators
  • Nonlinearities compensation
  • Oscillators

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