Characterisation of micromechanically coupled U-shaped cantilever-based oscillators with and without micromechanical elements for synchronised oscillation-based applications

Two novel oscillation systems, consisting of a U-shaped cantilever and a beam-shaped cantilever, were designed, fabricated and comparatively characterised for synchronised oscillation-based applications. In the case of without mechanical elements, two geometrically different cantilevers, with resonant frequencies of 182.506kHz (detecting) and 372.503kHz (sensing), respectively, are coupled by two coupling overhangs. Under synchronised oscillation, the frequency response was found to double from 182.850 to 365.713kHz from a low-frequency cantilever (U shaped) to a high-frequency cantilever (beam shaped). A plateau with a frequency ratio of 2.000 was observed for both systems, which corresponds to a stable synchronisation region. This demonstrates the possibility of increasing the frequency response signal from the low-frequency cantilever to the high-frequency cantilever based on this super harmonic synchronisation. However, based on the comparative studies of two systems with and without mechanical systems, it is found that enhancing the nonlinearity without increasing energy loss (support loss in the present study) seems to be necessary to widen the frequency entrainment range for real applications.