Large-displacement parametric resonance using a shaped comb drive

This paper is the first demonstration of large-stroke parametric resonance excited by an in-plane “shaped-finger” electrostatic comb drive. A custom-shaped comb finger profile is used to produce a quadratic capacitance-engagement response. The ability in selecting electrostatic stiffness coefficients by engineering the comb finger profile allows the excitation of the nonlinear parametric resonance for various applications such as the mode-matched gyroscopes and gravimetric sensors. The shaped-finger comb enables the study of the parametric resonance in systems with high energy storage. The shaped-finger comb parametric resonator is fabricated by a 15 μm-thick SOI-MEMS process.