Quantifying Effective Noise Sources in Coupled Resonating MEMS sensors

TL;DR

This paper models and simulates noise sources in coupled resonating MEMS sensors to identify dominant noise contributions and optimize the system noise floor for improved sensing performance.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive system-level model that quantifies mechanical and electronic noise sources in coupled MEMS sensors, aiding in noise optimization.

Findings

Mechanical and electronic noise contributions are quantified.

Dominant noise sources are identified under various operating conditions.

A method for optimizing the noise floor in amplitude-based readouts is proposed.

Abstract

This paper presents realistic system-level modelling and simulation of effective noise sources in a coupled resonating MEMS sensors. A governing set of differential equations are used to build a numerical model of a mechanical noise source in a coupled-resonator sensor. An effective thermomechanical noise is then quantified through the system-level simulation obtained via Simulink. On a similar note, various noise sources in electronic readout are identified and the contribution of each is quantified to determine an effective noise that stems from the electronic readout. A comparison between an effective mechanical and electronic noise aids in identifying the dominant noise source in a sensor system. A method to optimize the system noise floor for an amplitude-based the readout is presented. The proposed models present a variety of operating conditions, such as finite quality factor, varying coupled electric spring strength, and operation with in-phase and out-of-phase mode. The proposed models aim to determine the impact of fundamental noise processes and thus quantify the ultimate detection limit into a coupled resonating system used for various sensing applications.