High Order Nonlinearities and Mixed Behavior in Micromechanical Resonators

This paper investigates the sensitivity of the third order nonlinearity cancelation to the mixed (hardening and softening) behavior in electrostatically actuated micromechanical resonators under primary resonance at large amplitudes compared to the gap. We demonstrate the dominance of the mixed behavior due to the quintic nonlinearities, beyond the critical amplitude when the third order mechanical and electrostatic nonlinearities are balanced. We also report the experimental observation of a strange attraction which can lead to a chaotic resonator.