A novel characterization method for MEMS based electrostatic resonators for Q enhancement and feedthrough current elimination

This paper introduces a new technique for electrostatic resonance characterization based on 2
^nd
harmonic distortion terms at the output current. Mathematical analysis of the output current shows that the 2
^nd
harmonic component exhibits higher quality factor (Q) than the 1
^st
harmonic. Besides, output current to feedthrough current ratio is higher in the 2
^nd
harmonic term. Experimental results show that the Q of the resonating system is enhanced by 66% with 2
^nd
harmonic operation. Moreover, the resonance peak has been improved from 0.2 dB to 5dB, showing the effective increase in output current to the feedthrough ratio.