The University of British Columbia

Harmonic displacement of a parallel-plate electrostatic actuator up to 50% of the static pull-in displacement has been achieved despite the non-linear voltage-to-displacement function using a driving voltage with a pre-distorted waveform. The microstructure is fabricated in an epi-poly process and the circuit is implemented in a CMOS process and designed for operation of the MEMS in a frequency range up to 1 kHz. The pre-distorted waveform is synthesized using 16 samples per period with 16 non-uniformly spaced quantization levels, using a ladder with accurately scaled resistors. Harmonic actuation has been demonstrated with 34 dB reduction of second-order distortion compared to systems with sinusoidal actuation. The residual second harmonic content in the harmonic displacement is typically −42 dB.