Tuning the nonlinear behaviour of resonant MEMS sensors actuated electrically

The objectives of this present work is to study the stability and bifurcation control of an idealized electrostatically actuated microcantilever MEMS device that can widely observe in the field MEMS application. Here, the cantilever based device has been modelled as a spring-mass-damper system considering both the linear and nonlinear spring and damper. Simultaneously, the cantilever based device is excited harmonically by applied voltages. The method of multiple scales is employed to obtain the reduced order equations in terms of amplitude and phase those are directly used to determine the approximate the solutions for different resonance conditions. The catastrophic failure of the system may occur due to the presence of saddle-node and pitchfork bifurcation points as it leads the jump phenomenon. Basins of attractions are plotted in order to find the initial condition for a specific solution in a region having more than one solution. The obtained results can successfully be used in designing the microcantilever based devices that depict typical realistic nonlinear characteristics in the field of MEMS application. © 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.