A Hitchhiker's Guide to Co-Resonant Enhancement in Micromechanical Sensors

The potential of co-resonant enhancement in vibration-based cantilever sensors has been demonstrated in several experimental proof-of-concept studies. A recent breakthrough in microfabrication process development now enables precise batch-fabrication of co-resonant structures with predefined sensor properties. This paper reports the results of a systematic investigation comprising multimodal simulations corroborated with experimental studies of fabricated cantilever systems by digital holographic microscopy. For the first time, the parameter space of co-resonance can be specified based on practically relevant and measurable properties in a generalized way. This provides a significant step towards broad applicability of the co-resonant principle for any arbitrary design of coupled micro- and nanomechanical resonators with strongly dissimilar properties.