Investigation on Different Damping Mechanisms on the Q Factor of MEMS Resonators

It is the objective of this study to investigate the impact of different damping mechanisms occurring in micromachined clamped-clamped and clamped-free beams and evaluate the Q–factors determined experimentally against the predictions of analytical models. In detail, design parameters of the beams such as the length, width and thickness are varied to separate thermo-elastic, anchor, and surface related damping effects. Based on the analytical models, several sets of these simple structures which systematically vary in one geometrical parameter are manufactured and measured. By comparing the experimental data with analytical expressions, this study points out some limitations of current damping models especially with respect to anchor damping.