Experimental characterization of nonlinear motion of MEMS resonators

Mechanical nonlinearities play an important role in inertial MEMS sensors, in particular due to geometrical and process constraints. The trend to push the performance to the limits caused second-order nonlinear effects to become a critical phenomenon that must be taken into account: these effects are already visible and characterized on mass production devices.

Several methods and models able to describe these nonlinearities are already available in literature and in commercial software; anyway, experimental measurements and validation of these methods are fundamental for the MEMS design activities.