Stochastic resonance in a voltage-controlled MEMS-slider: Increasing the signal-to-noise ratio with noise

We demonstrate that, using stochastic resonance (SR) in a voltage-controlled MEMS-slider, the signal-to-noise ratio can be increased by adding white noise. Using a Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) based process, we realised a slider structure with periodic capacitive structures to obtain tunable unstable regions. We implemented stochastic resonance by controlling the strength of these capacitive wells by a DC-bias voltage, operating the device in push-pull mode by electrostatic actuation and adding a judiciously amount of white noise to one of the actuation comb drives. We show that this SR scheme allows for detection of sub-threshold forces, with application in e.g. SOI-based accelerometers.