The collective behavior of nonlinear, coupled micro- and nano-electromechanical (M/NEMS) resonators has been shown to exhibit a host of nontrivial dynamics including abrupt pattern switching, multistability, hysteresis, intrinsically localized modes, and synchronization. Additionally, M/NEMS resonator arrays are extremely responsive to environmental perturbations making them excellent candidates for sensing applications when operated linearly. With our work, we investigate the collective dynamics of coplanar interdigitated arrays of prismatic microcantilevers operating in both the nonlinear and linear regimes.

Two opposing, partially interdigitated cantilever arrays with 100 cantilevers apiece were fabricated using a silicon‑on‑insulator wafer. The device consists of a unique geometry in which each array has cantilever lengths expanding linearly across the device in opposite directions giving a distribution of natural frequencies. The arrays were engineered to allow for large scale, nonlinear out-of-plane beam deflections through the removal of the entire silicon handle layer beneath the active array area.

For sufficiently large drive amplitudes, the resonators begin oscillating via combination parametric resonance (CPR) across the entire array. The CPR driven oscillations occur across a broad frequency band. The tunable coupling between nearest-neighbor cantilevers through fringing electrostatic fields provides a mechanism to vary the CPR response. Due to the sizable deflections, the device’s nonlinearities are apparent including hysteresis effects. Our experimental results are supported and expanded by the development of a reduced order model based on the Galerkin decomposition which generates the leading features of our data including the CPR band.

When operating in the linear regime, the natural modes of the array have localized characteristics whereby a limited number of beams oscillate at each of the natural mode frequencies. Operating the device at higher harmonics increases mode separation as the propagation bands stretch. The distinct resonant peak separation coupled with the spatially confined modal response make higher harmonic operation of tailored, variable length cantilever arrays well suited for a variety of resonant based sensing applications.

Micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) are among the most sensitive devices for detection of ultra-weak forces, masses, and displacements. The small scale of these structures affords them very high frequencies (MHz to GHz), high quality factors, rich nonlinear phenomena, and many other beneficial traits that make them ideal as sensors and testbeds of fundamental physics. Fabry-Perot laser interferometry is a widespread and robust technique for probing MEMS/NEMS devices because it is non-invasive and provides exceptional motion sensitivity (≈ 1 pm/Hz^1/2) from DC to roughly 100 MHz. This technique utilizes the silicon substrate beneath the MEMS/NEMS device as a static reference mirror; doing so provides common-mode noise rejection in contrast to interferometers that use an external reference mirror. Furthermore, this technique is compatible with a wide range of MEMS/NEMS materials, from common insulators and conductors to graphene and other atomically-thin membranes.

Despite the many strengths of this experimental technique, it suffers from two main drawbacks. Firstly, the measured signal becomes highly nonlinear for device displacements larger than λ/4, where λ is the laser wavelength. Secondly, because the silicon backplane is immovable, there is no simple or established technique for calibrating device motion. As such, published results utilizing this setup typically report deflection in “arbitrary units.” In this work, we focus on fully characterizing the nonlinear aspects of a MEMS/NEMS Fabry-Perot interferometer and developing a generalized approach to calibrate device motion based the wavelength of light. We will demonstrate how to quickly and accurately determine both static and dynamic MEMS/NEMS deflection by measuring reflected laser power in the time domain. We will further show how a single calibration (made in the large-amplitude regime) can be applied to subsequent measurements taken at lower amplitudes as well as to measurements taken in the frequency domain (e.g. by a lock-in amplifier). Lastly, we will demonstrate the capability of imaging the first three vibrational modes of a MEMS cantilever by using a scanning laser.

Resonant accelerometers incorporating vibrating beams demonstrate higher sensitivity and better robustness when compared to their statically operated counterparts. Electrostatic softening of the beams electrostatically coupled to the proof mass allows to enhance sensitivity of the resonant accelerometers. The displacement of the proof mass affects the gap between the mass and the beam and results in the beam’s frequency change, which is maximal in the vicinity of the critical limit points of the voltage-deflection curve. The use of the snap-through buckling for this purpose is attractive since it is fully reversible and does not involve contact. While double-clamped curved bistable beams designed to demonstrate snap-through behavior can serve as resonant acceleration sensors [1], they suffer from high sensitivity to temperature and residual stress.

In this work we report on a design and fabrication of an electrostatically actuated bistable resonant cantilever [2], which demonstrates low sensitivity to the temperature and to the residual stress. The concept is based on the tailoring of the actuating force in such a way that the beam in its initial “as fabricated” configuration is positioned in the vicinity of the critical point. This is achieved by designing the actuating electrodes to be significantly thicker that the beam. Our reduced order (RO) Galerkin and coupled finite elements (FE) models results show that the frequency to deflection sensitivity of the L = 150 µm long, h = 16 µm wide and d = 1 µm thick cantilever can reach 20 Hz/nm. This is equivalent to the frequency to acceleration sensitivity of 388 Hz/g, obtained for the case of a 4 mm × 4 mm × 20 µm proof mass.

While the model results are promising, fabrication of the device incorporating the beams and the electrodes of the different thicknesses is challenging. We demonstrate fabrication of the 50 µm thick electrodes and ≈6 µm thick cantilevers from the same device layer of a Silicon on Insulator (SOI) wafer. Two-stage deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) process was used for an initial patterning of the electrodes and of the cantilever and for the thinning of the beams. We discuss the details of the fabrication process and preliminary experimental results.

[1] N. Krakover, B. R. Ilic and S. Krylov, “Displacement Sensing Based on Resonant Frequency Monitoring of Electrostatically Actuated Curved Micro Beams,” J. Micromech. Microeng., 26, pap. 115006, 2016.

[2] N. Krakover, S. Krylov, “Bistable Cantilevers Actuated by Fringing Electrostatic Fields,” ASME Journal of Vibration and Acoustics, 139(4), 040908-040908-10, 2017.

The use of compound semiconductor heterostructures as the elastic materials in the fabrication of micro/nanomechanical resonators has advantages, such like the improvement of mechanical properties through strain engineering, optomechanical transduction through carrier-mediated coupling, and piezoelectrically controllable nonlinearity [1]. The hybrid properties play the essential role in the operation where the different excitations of phonons, photons, and electrons are mutually interacted. In this invited talk, I will review our recent activities studying the electronic [2], photonic [3], and phononic [4] functions in GaAs-based mechanical resonators.

[1] H. Yamaguchi, Semicond. Sci. Technol. 32, 103003 (2017).

[2] Y. Okazaki, I. Mahboob, K. Onomitsu, S. Sasaki, and H. Yamaguchi, Nature Commun. 7, 11132 (2016).

[3] H. Okamoto, T. Watanabe, R. Ohta, K. Onomitsu, H. Gotoh, T. Sogawa, and H. Yamaguchi, Nature Commun. 6, 8478 (2015).

[4] M. Kurosu, D. Hatanaka, K. Onomitsu, and H. Yamaguchi, Nature Commun. 9, 1331 (2018).

Elastomers are fascinating materials owing to the fact that their mechanical properties are dictated by entropy. Due to their low modulus, chemical compatibility, and ease of processing, they are widely applied in fields from soft lithography to medical devices. While it is well accepted that they exhibit fascinating size-dependent mechanical properties when confined to thin films, the structure-property relationships that govern confined elastomers are difficult to unambiguously determine due to the mechanical influence of rigid support structures and unavoidable contributions from adhesion. As a result, a consensus regarding the moduli of elastomeric thin films has not emerged. Here, we present a combined computational and experimental approach to measure the true mechanical properties of thin elastomer films. First, we utilize extensive finite element simulations to determine a correction to the Hertzian contact model that depends upon a dimensionless film thickness and the polymer Poisson’s ratio. In order to verify this correction, films composed of three different thermoplastics were studied using an atomic force microscopy (AFM) nanoindenting. Interestingly, all three were observed to soften when confined to films thinner than 100 nm, in agreement with literature reports of buckling experiments. To explore softer elastomeric materials that exhibit categorically different behavior, we extended this correction to the Johnson-Kendall-Roberts (JKR) model that considers adhesion in contact mechanics. Elastomer thin films with different crosslink densities were studied using AFM nanoindentation and finite element simulation to determine their moduli. We observed a drastic stiffening on all elastomeric films when they were confined to sub-micrometer thicknesses. More importantly, modulus of all sub-100 nm elastomer films converges to the same trend regardless of bulk crosslink density. We present a hypothesized molecular model explaining this behavior. These results shed new light on the nanomechanics of elastomers and provide a general process for exploring size-dependent mechanics in polymers.