Study of structural noise owing to nonlinear behavior

of capacitive microphones
Hadi Madinei, Ghader Rezazadeh
n
, Naser Sharafkhani
Mechanical Engineering Department, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 17 February 2012
Received in revised form
27 July 2013
Accepted 5 August 2013
Available online 12 September 2013
Keywords:
MEMS
Capacitive microphone
Electrostatic actuation
Sound pressure
Noise
a b s t r a c t
This paper deals with the study of structural noise in a capacitive MEMS microphone, which consists of
a fully clamped circular micro-plate. The micro-plate is subjected to a bias DC voltage and sound pressure
waves. Due to the nonlinearity and displacement dependency of the electrostatic force, the amplitude of
the applicable bias DC voltage has some limitations and also this nonlinearity causes the generation of
super or sub-harmonic responses and consequently the initiation of the structural noise in capacitive
microphones. In order to determine the amplitude of the generated structural noise in these
microphones, the rst order multiple scales method is used and asymptotic analytical solution of the
dynamic response is presented. The effects of the bias DC voltage value on the fundamental frequency,
sensitivity and consequently on the amplitude of the structural noise of the microphone are studied.
In addition the effects of the sound pressure frequency and amplitude on the value of structural noise are
investigated.
& 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Microphones are acoustic transducers that transmit unsteady
pressure inputs to electrical signals. The microphones are widely
used in voice communications devices, hearing aids, surveillance
and military aims, ultrasonic and acoustic distinction under water,
noise and vibration control [1,2]. Traditional microphones, offer
excellent performance, but they are costly and currently not
suitable for miniaturization [3].
Micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) technology has been
quickly growing since its beginning in 1980s. With the development of
MEMS technology, many devices can be fabricated together on a small
wafer. This leads to the manufacture of MEMS microphones that can
approach the performance of traditional microphones with lower cost
and smaller size [4]. Electrical actuated MEMS devices due to their
simplicity, as they require few mechanical components and small
voltage levels for actuation are mostly used in many elds. Much of
the development of MEMS microphones has focused on hearing aid
applications, and therefore is concerned with detecting sound from
several tens of hertz to 100 kHz. However, many industrial and
military applications require acoustic data collection over larger
bandwidths for proper signal identication, with particular attention
to frequencies below 200 Hz. Low-frequency detection below the
audio range is useful for condition monitoring applications for heavy
equipment and engines as well as target acquisition [57]. In addition,
low frequency detection below the audio range is useful for healthcare
monitoring. In this case, a low-frequency microphone sensitive to
pressure waves in the frequency range of 0.1 Hz10 kHz, clearly
detected the bio signals from the subject's heartbeat, respiration, body
movement and snoring [8].
Mostly, microphones are categorized as dynamic, capacitor and
optical microphones [9]. The capacitive microphones have been
studied by many researchers because of their superior performances,
e.g. high sensitivities, low power consumption, at frequency
responses in wide bandwidth, low noise level, stability and reliability
[1012] that consists of a thin vibrating diaphragm and a rigid ground
plate that are separated by a small air gap. The relative movement of
the diaphragm to the ground plate is solely due to the applied acoustic
pressure on the diaphragm and ground plate should be thick enough
not to move as the reference [13]. Mechanical behavior of MEMS
microphones has been studied recently in several investigations:
Kwon et al. [13] considered a novel condenser microphone with rigid
backplate using silicon deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) and wafer
bonding technology, Stoffel et al. [14] represented a new miniature
microphone concept in which the sound wave enters a gap between
the microphone membrane surface and a cover plate through a slot for
excitation. They used an analytical description to calculate the
frequency response as a function of the gap height and compared it
to experimental results, Ganji et al. [15] studied a new MEMS
capacitives microphone using a perforated aluminum diaphragm,
Li et al. [16] developed a micro-machined capacitor microphone with
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mejo
Microelectronics Journal
0026-2692/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mejo.2013.08.003
n
Corresponding author. Tel.: 98 914 145 1407; fax: 98 441 277 7022.
E-mail addresses: grezazadeh44@yahoo.com,
g.rezazadeh@urmia.ac.ir (G. Rezazadeh).
Microelectronics Journal 44 (2013) 11931200
a novel single deeply corrugated diaphragmfor sound sensing in order
to improve the mechanical sensitivity by both releasing the initial
stress and decreasing the mechanical stiffness of the diaphragm,
Abuelma'atti [17] represented a mathematical model for the open-
circuit output voltage of a micro-machined silicon capacitor micro-
phone with a single deeply corrugated diaphragm as a function of the
applied acoustic pressure, Parsa et al. [18] analyzed Effects of Micro-
phone Type on Acoustic Measures of Voice, Rastegar et al. [19] studied
Application of He's variational iteration method to the estimation of
diaphragmdeection in MEMS capacitive microphone, Chen et al. [20]
developed a nodal analysis model of a capacitor microphone in an IC
design environment, Quaegebeur and Chaigne [21] studied mechanical
and electrical nonlinearity effects on the electroacoustical behavior of
electrodynamic transducers and Saeedi-vahdat et al. [22] analyzed
Effect of thermal stresses on stability and frequency of a capacitive
microphone.
Static and dynamic pull-in instability phenomena are impor-
tant issues in capacitive microphones and all electrostatically
driven microstructures. In this devices with apply the DC voltage,
attractive electrostatic and elastic restoring force create and with
increase voltage, both of them increase until voltage reaches the
critical value, the elastic restoring force can no longer balance the
electrostatic force and pull-in happens. Static and dynamic pull-in
voltages are two different cases of pull-in that are due to local and
global bifurcation, respectively. Study of different systems that
driven by an electrostatic force because of their small size, batch
production, low energy consumption, low cost and compatibility
with the integrated circuits (ICs) are very important.
One of the parameters that affects on a microphone performance is
noise. Electronic noise exists in all circuits and devices as a result of
thermal noise, also referred to as Johnson noise. It is caused by random
variations in current or voltage caused by the random movement of
charge carriers (usually electrons) carrying the current as they are
jolted around by thermal energy. Thermal noise can be reduced by
reducing the temperature of the circuit. This phenomenon limits the
minimum signal level that any radio receiver can usefully respond to,
because there will always be a small but signicant amount of thermal
noise arising in its input circuits. This is why radio telescopes, which
search for very low levels of signal from space, use front-end low-
noise amplier circuits cooled with liquid nitrogen. There are several
other sources of noise in electronic circuits such as shot noise, seen in
very low-level signals where the nite number of energy-carrying
particles becomes signicant, or icker noise (1/f noise) in semicon-
ductor devices. So far several researches have put their effort on
studying microphone response to different noises. Bitzer et al. [23]
analyzed a Multi-microphone noise reduction technique as front-end
devices for speech recognition, Maj et al. [24] represented comparison
of adaptive noise reduction algorithms in dual microphone hearing
aids and Saeedi-vahdat et al. [25] studied response of a MEMS
capacitive microphone to improve ltering shock noise.
Besides the foregoing sources of noise, the nonlinear behavior of
the device also can cause to generate noise due to its super or sub-
harmonic responses which is known as structural noise in the present
study. Since the behavior of capacitive microphones is nonlinear and
the generation of the super or sub-harmonic responses are possible
therefore in this paper, a clamped circular micro-plate as deformable
diaphragm of capacitive microphone, which is subjected to a polariza-
tion bias DC voltage and sound pressure wave are considered. The
nonlinear term of the electrostatic force is expanded using Calculus of
Variation Theory and Taylor series and neglected the terms higher
than the second order. Using a Galerkin based reduced order model,
a single-degree-of-freedom vibratory system with quadratic non-
linearitie is achieved, which is excited by a harmonic sound pressure
wave. In order to analyze the achieved equation, the method of
multiple time scale (MMTS) is used and the effect of Structural Noise is
investigated.
2. Mathematical modeling
A clamped circular micro-plate with radius R, thickness h and
gap g is shown in Fig. 1 subjected to a distributed electrostatic
force that created by a DC voltage source and sound pressure.
In this paper, we consider a periodic sound as the actuation of
the microphone diaphragm as the following
P; t P
0
cos t 1
in which P
0
and are the amplitude and frequency of the sound
pressure wave, respectively. Based on Kirchhoff thin plate theory
the relationship between the displacement components along the
radial u
r
, circumferential u

and transversal direction w can be

expressed, as follows
u
r
r; ; z; t z
wr; ; t
r
u

r; ; z; t z
wr; ; t
r
wr; ; z; t wr; ; t 2
According to Eq. (2) the strain components can be achieved as

r

u
r
r
z

2
w
r
2

u
r
r

1
r
u

z
w
rr

1
r
2

2
w

2
_ _

r

1
r
u
r

r

u

r
2z

r
1
r
w

_ _
3
According to Hook's law, the stressstrain relations for a plate in
the cylindrical coordinate system can be expressed as the follow-
ing [26]
s
r
s

r
_

_
_

_
E
1
2
E
1
2
0
E
1
2
E
1
2
0
0 0 G
_

_
_

r
_

_
_

_ 4
where E is young modulus, Poisson's ratio and GE/2(1).
Substituting Eq. (3) into Eq. (4) leads to the following stress
components
s
r

E
1
2

2
w
r
2
z
1
r
2

2
w

2

w
rr
_ _ _ _
s

E
1
2

2
w
r
2
z
1
r
2

2
w

2

w
rr
_ _ _ _

r
G
r
2Gz

r
1
r
w

_ _
5
The Bending and twisting moments per unit length of the circular
plate can be calculated as follows
M
r

_ h
2

h
2
s
r
z dz; M

_ h
2

h
2
s

z dz; M
r

_ h
2

h
2

r
z dz 6
The total strain energy density is obtained as follow
U
T

1
2
_
V
s
r

r
s

r
_ _
dV;
Fig. 1. Schematic view of electrostatically actuated clamped circular micro-plate
under sound pressure.
H. Madinei et al. / Microelectronics Journal 44 (2013) 11931200 1194
U
T

1
2
_
A
M
r

2
w
r
2
M

1
r
w
r

1
r
2

2
w

2
_ _
2M
r

r
1
r
w

_ _ _ _
dA: 7
The work done by the external forces in the form of transverse
loading q is obtained as
W
T

_
A
q w r;
_ _
dA 8
The total kinetic energy of the plate is given by
K
T

1
2
_
V

u
r
t
_ _
2

t
_ _
2

w
t
_ _
2
_ _
dV 9
where is the mass density of the plate material. By applying
ur
t

u

t
0, the kinetic energy obtained as
K
T

1
2
_
A
h
w
t
_ _
2
dA 10
To derive the boundary-value problem, Hamilton's principle can
be used

_
T
0
K
T
U
T
W
T
dt 0 11
The governing equilibrium differential equation of transverse
motions for a circular micro-plate showed as follow

2
M
r
r
2

2
r
M
r
r

1
r
2

2
M

2

1
r
M

r

2
r

2
M
r
r

2
r
2
M
r

q h

2
w
t
2
12
where q is the external force. Assuming the deection of the
clamped circular micro-plate is symmetrical relative to the cir-
cumferential coordinate, (w/0) the stress components take
the following forms
s
r

Ez
1
2

2
w
r
2

w
rr

Ez
1
2

2
w
r
2

w
rr

r
0 13
Then the equation of transverse motions for a clamped circular
micro-plate subjected to nonlinear electrostatic force and sound
pressure wave takes the following form
D
4
w
_ _
h

2
w
t
2
q F
e
P
D
Eh
3
121
2

; F
e


0
V
2
dc
2gw
2
; P P
0
cos t 14
where
0
is the permittivity of the air within gap, g is the initial
gap between the micro-plate and substrate, V
dc
is applied DC
voltage and
4
is the biharmonic operator in the polar coordinate
system for the axisymmetric circular plate

4
r
4

2
r

3
r
3

1
r
2

2
r
2

1
r
3

r
15
The clamped plate's boundary conditions are given by
w
r
R; t 0; w R; t 0 16
For convenience the following dimensionless parameters are
dened to transform Eq. (14) into non-dimensional form
^ w
w
g
; ^ r
r
R
;
^
t
t
t
n
; ^

n
t
n
R
2

h
D
_
;
n

1
t
n
17
Substituting Eq. (17) into Eq. (14), the non-dimensional equa-
tion of transverse motion, takes the following form

4
^ w

2
^ w

^
t
2

1
V
2
dc
1 ^ w
_ _
2

2
cos ^ w
^
t

1


0
R
4
2Dg
3
;
2

P
0
R
4
Dg
18
By expanding the electrostatic force Eq. (18) using Calculus of
Variation Theory and Taylor series expansion about the equili-
brium position up to the second-order, the following equation is
obtained

4
^ w
d
^ w
s

2
^ w
d

^
t
2

1
V
2
dc
1 ^ w
s
_ _
2

2V
2
dc
1 ^ w
s
_ _
3
^ w
d

3V
2
dc
1 ^ w
s
_ _
4
^ w
2
d
_ _

2
cos ^ w
^
t 19
Rewriting Eq. (19), the following equation is obtained

4
^ w
d
_ _

2
^
t
d

^
t
2

1
2V
2
dc
1 ^ w
s

3
^ w
d

1
3V
2
dc
1 ^ w
s

4
^ w
2
d

2
cos ^ w
^
t 20
For studying the microphone response to harmonic sound pres-
sure wave a Galerkin-based reduced order model can be used [27].
To achieve a reduced order model w
d
^ r
^
t can be approximated as
w
d
^ r;
^
t;
N
j 1
U
j

^
t
j
^ r 21
here N is considered 1 and the approximate solution are consid-
ered based on a one degree-of-freedom model.
w
d
^ r;
^
t U
^
t^ r 22
Substituting Eq. (22) into Eq. (20) and multiplying by ^ r as a
weight function in Galerkin method and integrating the outcome
from ^ r 0 to 1, a one degree-of-freedom model is generated as
M

U
^
tK
mech
K
elec
U
^
tK
n
U
2

^
t f cos ^ w
^
t 23
where the equivalent mass, mechanical stiffness, electrical stiff-
ness, nonlinear stiffness coefcient and forcing term, respectively
are given by
M
_
1
0

2
^ rd^ r; K
mech

_
1
0
f
4
^ rg^ r d^ r; K
elec

_
1
0
2
1
V
2
dc
1 ^ w
s
_ _
3

^
t d^ r; K
n

_
1
0
3
1
V
2
dc
1 ^ w
s
_ _
4

3
^ r d^ r; f
_
1
0

2
^ r d^ r 24
Eq. (24) can be written in the following form

U
2
n
U
2
n
U
2
F cos ^
^
t;
n

K
mech
K
elec
M

;
K
n
K
mech
K
elec
; F
_
1
0

2
^ r d^ r
_
1
0

2
^ r d^ r
25
3. Solution of equation
3.1. Static solutions
According to nonlinearity of the electrostatic led and com-
plexity of obtaining an exact solution, step by step linearization
method (SSLM) [28] is used to linearize the equation
^ w
s
; V
dc
_ _

4
^ w
s

1
V
dc
1 ^ w
s
_ _
2
0 26
H. Madinei et al. / Microelectronics Journal 44 (2013) 11931200 1195
The SSLM is performed by introducing ^ w
k
s
as the displacement of
the microphone due to the voltage V
k
dc
applied in the (k)th step.
To move forward to the next step, voltage is increased to a new
value V
k1
dc
, and the displacement will be changed to ^ w
k1
s
, the
increase in the transverse displacement is denoted by ^ r.
V
k1
dc
V
k
dc
V
^ w
k1
s
^ w
k
s
^ w
s
^ w
k
s
^ r 27
Therefore, Eq. (26) for the (k1)th step can be rewritten as follow
^ w
k1
s
; V
k1
dc
_ _

4
^ w
k1
s

1
V
k1
dc
1 ^ w
k1
s
_ _
2
0 28
By considering a small value of V, the value of ^ r will be
expected to be small enough to obtain a desired accuracy. Using
the variation theory and rst two terms of Taylor's expansion, we
obtain the following linearized equation to calculate

4
2
1
V
k
dc

2
1 ^ w
k
s

3

V
k
dc
1 ^ w
k
s

2
V
_ _
0 29
The unknown ^ r based on function space can be expressed in
terms of base functions as following
^ r
1
j 1
a
j

j
^ r 30
where
j
^ ris the base or shape functions, which satisfy the
accompanying boundary conditions. The ^ r can be approximated
truncating the summation series to a nite number n.
^ r
j
^ r
N
j 1
a
j

j
^ r 31
By substituting Eq. (31) into Eq. (29), and multiplying by
i
^ r as
the weight function in Galerkin based weighted residual method
and integrating the outcome over ^ r 0 to 1, a set of algebraic
equations will be generated as

N
m 1
K
ij
mech
K
ij
elec
a
j
F
i
; i 1; ; N 32
Where the mechanical stiffness, electrical stiffness and forcing
term, respectively are given by
K
ij
mech

_
1
0
f
4

i
^ rg
j
^ r d^ r
K
ij
elec

_
1
0
2
1
V
2
dc
1 ^ w
s
_ _
3

i
^ r
j
^ r d^ r
F
i

_
1
0
2
1
V
k
dc
V
1 ^ w
s
_ _
2

i
^ r d^ r 33
In each step, by substituting calculated into Eq. (27), deection
at any given applied voltage can be determined.
3.2. Dynamic analysis
In this section, to determine a uniformly valid approximate
solution of Eq. (25), the method of multiple time scales [2931]
(MMTS) is used.

U
2
n
U
2
n
U
2
F cos ^ w
^
t 34
For solving Eq. (34) with MMTS, a one-order uniform solution is
considered, in the following form
U U
0
T
0
; T
1
U
1
T
0
; T
1
O
2
35
where T
n

n
^
t.
In the terms of T
n
the time derivatives are represented by
following equation
dU
dt
D
0
UD
1
UO
2

d
2
U
dt
D
2
0
U2D
0
D
1
UO
2
36
Substituting Eq. (35) and Eq. (36) into Eq. (34) and equating
coefcients of like powers of , we obtain

0
: D
2
0
U
0

2
n
U
0
F cos cos ^ wT
0
37

1
: D
2
0
U
1

2
n
U
1
2D
0
D
1
U
0

2
n
U
2
0
38
The general solution of Eq. (37) can be written in the form
U
0
a
0
T
1
cos
n
T
0
b
0
T
1
sin
n
T
0

1
cos ^ T
0

1

F

2
n
^
2

39
Substituting U
0
into Eq. (38) yields
D
2
0
U
1

2
n
U
1
2
n
da
0
dT
1
_ _
sin
n
T
0

2
n
db
0
dT
1
_ _
cos
n
T
0

2
n
a
2
0
2
cos 2
n
T
0

2
n
b
2
0
2
cos 2
n
T
0

2
n

2
1
2
cos 2 ^ T
0

2
n
a
0
b
0
sin2
n
T
0

2
n
a
0

1
cos
n
^ T
0

2
n
a
0

1
cos
n
^ T
0

2
n
b
0

1
sin
n
^ T
0

2
n
b
0

1
sin
n
^ T
0

2
n
a
2
0
b
2
0

2
1

2
40
By eliminating the secular terms from Eq. (40), we have
da
0
dT
1
0-a
0
c
1
and
db
0
dT
1
0-b
0
c
2
41
Rewriting Eq. (40)
D
2
0
U
1

2
n
U
1

2
n
c
2
1
2
cos 2
n
T
0

2
n
c
2
2
2
cos 2
n
T
0

2
n

2
1
2
cos 2 ^ T
0

2
n
c
1
c
2
sin2
n
T
0

2
n
c
1

1
cos
n
^ T
0

2
n
c
1

1
cos
n
^ T
0

2
n
c
2

1
sin
n
^ T
0

2
n
c
2

1
sin
n
^ T
0

2
n
c
2
1
c
2
2

2
1

2
42
The general solution of Eq. (42) can be written in the form
U
1
c
3
cos
n
T
0
c
4
sin
n
T
0

c
2
1
6
cos 2
n
T
0

c
2
2
6
cos 2
n
T
0

2
n

2
1
2
2
n
4 ^
2

cos 2 ^ T
0

c
1
c
2
3
sin2
n
T
0

c
1

2
n

2
n

n
^
2
cos
n
^ T
0

c
1

2
n

2
n

n
^
2
cos
n
^ T
0

c
2

2
n

2
n

n
^
2
sin
n
^ T
0

c
2

2
n

2
n

n
^
2
sin
n
^
_ _
T
0

c
2
1
c
2
2

2
1

2
43
Let the initial conditions be U
^
t 0 A and
_
U
^
t 0 0. In the
MTS method, we force the solution U
0
given by Eq. (39) to satisfy
the initial conditions so that
U
0
0 c
1

1
A -c
1
A
1
_
U
0
0 c
2

n
0 -c
2
0 44
H. Madinei et al. / Microelectronics Journal 44 (2013) 11931200 1196
Since the initial conditions are satised by U
0
, the solution U
1
must, satisfy zero initial condition.
U
1
0 0 and
_
U
1
0 0
c
3

c
2
1
6

2
n

2
1
2
2
n
4 ^
2

c
1

2
n

2
n
n ^
2

c
1

2
n

2
n
n ^
2

c
2
1

2
1
2
c
4
0
45
By substituting Eqs. (39) and (43) into Eq. (35), the rst order
approximated solution is obtained
U c
1
cos
n
^
t
1
cos ^
^
t

_
c
3
cos
n
^
t
c
2
1
6
cos 2
n
^
t

2
n

2
1
2
2
n
4 ^
2

cos 2 ^
^
t

c
1

2
n

2
n

n
^ w
2
cos
n
^
^
t
c
1

2
n

2
n

n
^ w
2
cos
n
^ w
^
t

c
2
1

2
1
2
_
O
2
46
Rewriting Eq. (46) yields
U D
1
cos
n
^
tD
2
cos 2
n
^
tD
3
cos ^
^
tD
4
cos 2 ^
^
t
D
5
cos
n
^
^
t D
6
cos
n
^
^
t D
7
O
2
47
where
D
1
c
1
c
3
; D
2

c
2
1
6
; D
3

1
; D
4


2
n

2
1
2
2
n
4 ^
2

D
5

c
1

2
n

2
n

n
^
2
; D
6

c
1

2
n

2
n

n
^
2
; D
7

c
2
1

2
1

2
48
4. Numerical results and discussion
In order to study the dynamic behavior of a capacitive micro-
phone, a clamped circular micro-plate is considered with the
geometrical and material properties as listed in Table 1.
Also this study uses the following shape functions, which
satisfy all boundary conditions for the axisymmetric circular
micro-plate.

1
^ r1
2
^ r 1
2

2
^ r1
2
^ r 1
2
^ r0:8^ r 0:8

3
^ r1
2
^ r 1
2
^ r0:7^ r 0:7^ r0:9^ r 0:9 49
4.1. Static response of the micro-plate to a DC voltage
According to solution of Eq. (28) by increasing the voltage
applied to the electrostatic areas, the electrical stiffness of the
structure is increased and leads to the decrease of the equivalent
stiffness of the structure. Due to decreasing the value of equivalent
stiffness, center deection of the micro-plate is increased and for a
given applied voltage called as pull in voltage in the MEMS
literature, a static instability is occurred.
As shown in Fig. 2 at V
dc
17.82(V), the system has a tendency
to static instability by undergoing a saddle node bifurcation. For
comparison of obtained results with those existing in references, a
micro-plate investigated in [28] and having same properties as
listed in Table 1 is considered. The calculated pull-in voltage is
17.82(V) which has good agreed with the ones in reference [32].
At the other hands the value of natural frequency is decreased
by increasing the applied DC voltage and at pull-in voltage the
natural frequency becomes zero (see Fig. 3).
4.2. Dynamic response of the micro-plate to a step DC voltage
(V
dc
a0; P
0
0)
Time history and phase portrait of the circular micro-plate
undergone different input step DC voltages, are illustrated in
Fig. 4a and b. It must be noted that the scenario of instability in
the case of applying a step DC voltage is different from its statically
application. The saddle node bifurcation, observed in the statically
application of DC voltage, is a local stationary bifurcation and can
be analyzed based on locally dened Eigen-values. But in the
applying of step DC voltage periodic orbits encounter phenomena
that cannot be analyzed based on locally dened Eigen-values.
Such phenomena are called global bifurcations [33,34].
Fig. 4a and b shows a metamorphosis of how a periodic orbit
approaches homoclinic orbit at dynamic pull-in voltage. Indeed
the periodic orbit is ended at dynamic pull-in voltage where a
homoclinic orbit is initiated. In another word when the applied voltage
approaches dynamic pull-in voltage due to the displacement depen-
dency of the nonlinear electrostatic force and decreasing the
Table 1
Geometrical and material properties of the micro-plate.
Design variable Value
Radius (R) 250 m
Thickness of the (h) 1 m
Permittivity of air (
0
) 8.85 pF/m
Initial gap (g) 3 m
Young's modulus (E) 169 Gpa
Poisson's ratio () 0.3
Density () 7850 kg/m
3
Fig.2. Non-dimensional center gap of micro-plate versus voltage.
Fig.3. Natural frequency of micro-plate versus voltage.
H. Madinei et al. / Microelectronics Journal 44 (2013) 11931200 1197
equivalent stiffness, period of oscillations tends to innity and a
symmetry breaking is occurred in motion trajectories. It may be said
that there happens a homoclinic bifurcation when the periodic orbit
collides with a saddle point at dynamic pull-in voltage.
4.3. Dynamic response of the deected micro-plate to a sound
pressure wave (V
dc
a0, P
0
a0)
According to solution of Eq. (34) that represented by Eq. (45)
when micro-plate is subjected to harmonic sound pressure wave
with frequency of ^ , other frequencies is generated in response of
system. These frequencies are classied as noise. In the rst order
approximated solution that obtained with multiple scales method,
the dynamic response of system consist of different terms.
Some terms are related to initial conditions and disappeared
with increasing the time but two essential terms are remaining. In
following gures the amplitudes of these terms are shown when
the frequency of excitation is varied.
As illustrated in Fig.5, when ^
n
, the amplitude of cos ^
^
t
is increased. This is the case in which the system experiences
primary resonance and as shown in Fig. 6 the system has a
secondary resonance at ^
n
=2. In practice microphones used
in frequencies that lower than natural frequency. Generally in
capacitive microphones, the frequency range of sound pressure
wave is usually 40 Hz up to 16 KHz and when the capacitive
microphones is excited by ^ as frequency of sound pressure, other
frequencies that generated in response of system are undesirable.
By considering amplitude of cos 2 ^
^
t respect to amplitude of
cos ^ w
^
t as structural noise, the effect of increasing DC voltage, the
non-dimensional amplitude of the sound pressure wave (
2
) and
frequency in amplitude of structural noise, are shown in Figs. 7, 8,
9 and 10. As illustrated in Fig. 7 by increasing the non-dimensional
amplitude of the sound pressure wave, the amplitude of structural
noise is increased.
This manner is shown for different voltages. Fig. 8 shows, when
the non-dimensional amplitude of the sound pressure wave is
constant, by increasing applied DC voltage; the amplitude of
structural noise is increased. Fig. 9 shows that by increasing the
Fig. 4. Time history and phase plane of motion for three applied DC voltage.
Fig. 5. Amplitudes of cos ^
^
t versus ^ at V
dc
15(V) and
2
5.3.
Fig. 6. Amplitudes of cos 2 ^
^
t versus ^ at V
dc
15(V) and
2
5.3.
Fig. 7. Amplitudes of Noise versus
2
at 10 KHz.
H. Madinei et al. / Microelectronics Journal 44 (2013) 11931200 1198
frequency of sound pressure the amplitude of structural noise is
increased and Fig. 10 shows that in constant applied DC voltage by
increasing the non-dimensional amplitude of the sound pressure
wave, the amplitude of structural noise is increased. Increasing
the applied DC voltage in capacitive microphones increased the
sensitivities of microphone because the natural frequency of
microphone is decreased but as illustrated in Figs. 7, 8 and 9 by
increasing the applied DC voltage the structural noise is increased.
Then determining the value of the DC voltage that applied to the
capacitive microphones is very important.
5. Conclusion
An investigation about the structural noise in capacitive Micro-
phones was presented. The results showed that the static and
dynamic pull-in thresholds of the studied case were 17.82 V and
16.54 V, respectively. According to the nonlinearities in capacitive
microphones, the results illustrated that when a sound pressure
wave is applied to the deected micro-plate, super harmonic
responses are generated which is classied as undesirable
response or structural noise. The effects of several parameters on
the amplitude of the structural noise were investigated. As the
results shows, by increasing the DC voltage the fundamental
frequency of the microphone decreases and the sensitivity of the
microphone is increased but consequently the amplitude of the
structural noise is also increased. In addition the result shows that
for sound pressures with high frequency or high amplitude the
structural noise is high in capacitive microphones. Hence, con-
sidering the structural noise seems to be essential for the analysis
of low-frequency microphone.
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