Thermal influences on driven damped MEMS cantilevers

This work emphasizes the temperature dependence of the resonance frequency of uniform heated cantilevers through an alternating current in the lead on top of the structure. In the first part of the publication a theoretical study is carried out to determine the temperature distribution on uniformly heated U-shaped cantilevers. The theoretical results are supported by measurements performed with a laser vibrometer: The frequency shift due to the temperature gradient on the beam is calculated with the estimated temperature distribution along the U-shaped structure. The device exhibits a temperature dependence of the resonance frequency of about -27 ppm/K. The fit matches the data better than 2%, which is consistent with the theoretical predicted value of -28.7 ppm/K.