Static and dynamic experimental investigations of a micro-electromechanical cantilever in air and vacuum

The dynamic response of electro-mechanically actuated micro structures is governed by nonlinear effects which directly influence their performance. To date, most work in the field of micro/nano systems is done experimentally and documented theoretical research consists of nonlinear lumped-mass models as well as continuum mechanics approaches. Existing and codified computational tools for micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) more and more penetrate the market of designers and fabrication of such devices. The present work is the experimental part of a bench-mark study of a selected microbeam structure investigated with aforementioned analytical and computational techniques and compared to experiments performed with a Polytec MSA400 analyzer. The emphasis of this benchmark study is put on the nonlinear dynamic behavior with respect to qualitative and quantitative explanations of the electro-mechanical actuation and damping mechanisms.