Tunable vibration control in a microelectromechanical resonator array by means of parametric coupling between mechanical and electrical modes

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Vol. 148; no. 4; p. 2719
• Main Authors: Surappa, Sushruta, Degertekin, F. Levent
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.10.2020
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.5147541

Vibration control in flexible structures at both the micro and macro scale has been a subject of considerable research interest over the last few decades. Various active, semi-active and passive vibration control schemes have been proposed for applications ranging from attenuating unwanted vibrations in structural components to controlling the ring down time in high-Q mechanical oscillators. Here, we present a simple, yet highly effective method to passively attenuate large amplitude resonant vibrations in an array of membrane-based microelectromechanical (MEM) resonators. By capacitively coupling the MEM array to a resonant electrical circuit tuned to half the mechanical resonance frequency, the vibrational energy in the array can be converted to electrical energy via parametric mode coupling between the mechanical and electrical resonator. Simulation and experimental studies indicate that both the rate of vibration attenuation and the degree of suppression can be effectively controlled by tuning electrical parameters such as the resistance and the initial voltage in the circuit. The extension of the control scheme to multi-mode vibrations by making use of multiple shunted electrical resonators will also be briefly discussed.