Thermal Stress Tuning of Bistable Piezoelectric MEMS Membranes to Maximize Dynamic Deflections Towards Highest Switching Probability

This study presents a method to thermally tune the induced stress of bistable piezoelectric MEMS membranes. By controlling the temperature of the devices, key characteristics such as the static buckling height, the dynamic amplitude and the fundamental resonance frequency can be precisely adjusted. Based on previous studies, maximizing the dynamic amplitude as a response to an electrical excitation will increase the probability for a permanent transition between the two stable ground states, referred in this work as switching event. The developed thermal setup allows both, high levels of tunability, while simultaneously measuring the key properties of bistable membrane structures.