A novel threshold pressure sensor based on nonlinear dynamics of MEMS arches

In this paper, we propose a new tunable pressure sensor based on the nonlinear snap-through instability of an electrically actuated shallow arch microbeam. The general concept of the sensor can be explained as follows: the shallow arch is excited to trigger dynamic snap-through instability yielding a high output amplitude, if the system operating pressure is below a threshold value. This state is interpreted as a digital logic 1. Once the varying pressure exceeds that threshold value, the arch gains its stability. Therefore, the new state would be interpreted as a digital logic 0 value. We show an example of an operation range of the proposed sensor by identifying the relationship between the excitation AC voltage and the critical cut-off pressure.