A New Scheme to Enhance/Decrease Sensitivity of a Mems Resonator Using Parametric Modulation

In this work, a new scheme to enhance or decrease the sensitivity of a MEMS resonator is proposed. The proposed approach utilizes a periodic modulation on the stiffness of a standard clamped-clamped (C-C) beam, i.e. parametric modulation, to couple two intrinsic fundamental modes of vibration. Through this coupling, it is possible to transfer the sensitivity of one fundamental mode to the other, thereby creating regions where the sensitivity of the MEMS resonator can be enhanced or reduced. Finally, the effect of this approach on the noise performance is also investigated. And it is found that this approach does not deteriorate the noise performance. Potentially, this approach can be extended to other resonator structures, and could be applied to resonant MEMS sensors or timing references.