A nonlinear resonant mass sensor with enhanced sensitivity and resolution incorporating compressed bistable beam

Abstract

A new piezoelectric actuated nonlinear mass sensor is proposed by using the snap-through phenomenon of compressed bistable beam to enhance the sensitivity and resolution, which can be used to weigh or detect threshold mass by tracking the bifurcation frequency shift. According to the nonlinear finite element modeling technique, the nonlinear dynamic response of the combined nonlinear structure is numerically calculated, which shows that the bifurcation point can be accurately identified by the sharp and great amplitude change regardless of the damping effect, thus providing an effective way for tracking the bifurcation frequency. Hence, the nonlinear sensitivity depicted by the bifurcation frequency shift per unit mass can reach 3.3 times the sensitivity of linear mass sensors having the same size. Also, as a mass switch, the response amplitude jumps sharply when the added mass is greater than or equal to the threshold value, which is depending on the excitation frequency. Meanwhile, the influences of the beam compression and excitation voltage on the sensitivity and minimum detectable mass were obtained for sensor optimization. For concept validation, a macro-sized nonlinear mass sensor was fabricated with the geometric size of 58.0 mm long and 4.0 mm wide, and the experimental results show that the sensitivity is around 575.0 Hz/g compared with the simulated sensitivity of 542.0 Hz/g. For mass switch, the minimum threshold mass is 0.2 mg. The fair agreement between the simulation and experiments adequately validated the proposed nonlinear bistable mass sensor.

On the nonlinear dynamics of a piezoresistive based mass switch based on catastrophic bifurcation

“…The dynamic range enhancement of MEMS mass sensors has also been studied. Considering the geometry of the model cantilever beams with and without a tip mass have been widely studied in the literature for various applications ranging from energy harvesting (Zhang et al 2022 ; Ghavami et al 2018 ) to mass detection (Kumar et al 2011 ; Zhao et al 2018 ). From the analysis of the motion equations point of view, various approaches including numerical integration, nonlinear perturbation techniques, isogeometric analysis (IGA), (Madinei et al 2015 ; Phung-Van et al 2017 ; Thanh et al 2022 ; Cuong-Le et al 2022 ).…”

“…From the analysis of the motion equations point of view, various approaches including numerical integration, nonlinear perturbation techniques, isogeometric analysis (IGA), (Madinei et al 2015 ; Phung-Van et al 2017 ; Thanh et al 2022 ; Cuong-Le et al 2022 ). Zhao et al (Zhao et al 2018 ) proposed a piezoelectric-based mass sensor with enhanced sensitivity due to the operation in the nonlinear bi-stable regime. Yaqoob et al ( 2022 ) proposed a MEMS mass sensor for analyte detection using multi-mode excitation of a resonator.…”

The Heterostructures of CuO and SnOx for NO2 Detection

“…Many types of gas sensors are used to detect the presence of NO 2 [ 12 ], including electrochemical sensors [ 13 ], catalytic sensors, optical sensors—infrared absorption (Infra-Red) and semiconductor sensors, which are also used in mass resonant [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Various materials are used in the production of semiconductor gas sensors, such as MoS 2 [ 19 ].…”

Nonlinear size-dependent modeling and dynamics of nanocrystalline arc resonators

“…Dynamics of micro/nanoresonators, linear and nonlinear, have been studied theoretically and experimentally in the literature showing their potential exploitation for several applications (Raman et al 2008;Kenig et al 2009;Tamayo et al 2013;Asadi et al 2018;Hajjaj et al 2019c). More specifically, bistable MEMS/NEMS resonators have extensively been used in numerous potential applications, like sensing (Zhao et al 2018;Hajjaj et al 2019c), filtering (Hafiz et al 2017), logic devices (Hafiz et al 2016), signal processing (Nguyen 2007), and energy harvesting (Ando et al 2012). Bistable resonators could be realized in different configurations, including the buckled beams (Lacarbonara et al 1998;Hajjaj et al 2016;Fu et al 2019;Erbil et al 2020) and the intentionally fabricated curved beams (shallow arch beams) (Hajjaj et al 2015;Tella et al 2017;Ouakad and Najar 2019).…”