Characterization of a MEMS resonator with extended hysteresis

In this paper an electrostatically driven MEMS resonator with resonance and hysteresis characteristics is reported. The resonator begins to exhibit spring-hardening effect at ac excitation voltage of 105mV and dc bias voltage of 5V in vacuum at 50Pa. An extended hysteresis at low pressure and high excitation voltage during upsweep and downsweep of excitation frequency was observed. This characteristic facilitates the usage of this type of resonator in a range of applications such as a cascaded filter array or as a high bandwidth resonator