Micro-structured cellular polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) materials were prepared by a low-cost molding process allowing us to control geometry and sample size. Cellular structures are charged with a triangular quasi-static voltage with amplitudes between 1 kV and 4 kV and a frequency of 0.5 Hz fixed after having evaluated the conditions enhancing the piezoelectric response of the cellular PDMS. The piezo-electret PDMS material charged at room temperature has a piezoelectric coefficient d ₃₃ of 350 pC/N, which is ten times larger than that of polyvinylidene fluoride. The high piezoelectric coefficient with a very low elastic modulus of 300 kPa makes these materials very useful for wearable device applications. The piezoelectric coefficient d ₃₃ of the samples poled at high temperatures improves thermal stability but reduces PDMS piezo-electret piezoelectricity, which is explained by the structure’s stiffness. These results are useful and allow us to set the conditions for the preparation of the piezo-electret materials according to desired applications.

Microfabricated electric generators, scavenging ambient mechanical energy, are potential power sources for autonomous systems. Described presently are the design, modeling, and implementation of a single-wafer floating-electrode electric microgenerator, integrating a micromechanical resonator and a number of electronic devices. Forming a plate of a variable capacitor, the resonator is responsible for converting mechanical vibration to electricity. A sense transistor and a diode bridge are integrated, respectively, for monitoring the "charging" of the floating electrode and for rectification. A lumped electromechanical model of the generator is developed and expressed in terms of a set of nonlinear coupled state equations that are numerically solved. For small-amplitude excitation, a circuit based on a set of linearized equations is developed. The generator is realized using a compatible combination of standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) "floating gate" process and a post-CMOS photoresist molded electroplating process. Adequate agreement between model predictions and measurement results was obtained

Chaotic systems, presenting complex and nonreproducible dynamics, may be found in nature, from the interaction between planets to the evolution of weather, but can also be tailored using current technologies for advanced signal processing. However, the realization of chaotic signal generators remains challenging due to the involved dynamics of the underlying physics. In this paper, we experimentally and numerically present a disruptive approach to generate a chaotic signal from a micromechanical resonator. This technique overcomes the long-established complexity of controlling the buckling in micro/nanomechanical structures by modulating either the amplitude or the frequency of the driving force applied to the resonator in the nonlinear regime. The experimental characteristic parameters of the chaotic regime, namely, the Poincaré sections and Lyapunov exponents, are directly comparable to simulations for different configurations. These results confirm that this dynamical approach is transposable to any kind of micro/nanomechanical resonator, from accelerometers to microphones. We demonstrate a direct application exploiting the mixing properties of the chaotic regime by transforming an off-the-shelf microdiaphragm into a true random number generator conforming to the National Institute of Standards and Technology specifications. The versatility of this original method opens new paths to combine the unique properties of chaos with the exceptional sensitivity of microstructures, leading to emergent microsystems.

This work presents a lumped parameters equivalent model of condenser microphone based on analogies between acoustic, mechanical, fluidic, and electrical domains. Parameters of the model were determined mainly through analytical relations and/or finite element method (FEM) simulations. Special attention was paid to the air gap modeling and to the use of proper boundary condition. Corresponding lumped-parameters were obtained as results of FEM simulations. Because of its simplicity, the model allows a fast simulation and is readily usable for microphone design. This work shows the validation of the equivalent circuit on three real cases of capacitive microphones, including both traditional and Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems structures. In all cases, it has been demonstrated that the sensitivity and other related data obtained from the equivalent circuit are in very good agreement with available measurement data.