A second harmonic based resonance characterization method for MEMS electrostatic resonators

•A second harmonic based characterization method for MEMS electrostatic resonators•Elimination of resistive and capacitive feedthrough currents without differential topologies•Enhancement of the quality factor (Q) of the resonating system at the same time•Experimental verification of the proposed method with a lateral-mode MEMS resonator•Measured enhancement of the Q by 65% and of the signal-to-background ratio by 34.6 dB This paper presents a novel read-out approach both for eliminating parasitic feedthrough current and for enhancing the quality-factor (Q) of the resonating system at the same time. A new resonance characterization method based on sensing second harmonic component of the resonators was developed. Utilizing this method, the feedthrough current was eliminated and the signal-to-background ratio was increased from 0.9 dB to 35.5 dB. Furthermore, the Q of the resonating system was improved by 65% experimentally. It was shown that this method is suitable for eliminating both capacitive and resistive feedthrough current without using complex MEMS designs and interface electronics.