Analysis of a Chaotic Electrostatic Micro - Oscillator

The closed-loop dynamics of a chaotic electrostatic microbeam actuator are presented. The actuator was found to be an asymmetric two-well potential system with two distinct chaotic attractors: one of which occurs predominantly in the lower well and a second that visits a lower-well orbit and a two-well orbit. Bifurcation diagrams obtained by sweeping the ac voltage amplitudes and frequency are presented. Period doubling, reverse period doubling, and the one-well chaos through period doubling are observed in amplitude sweep. In frequency sweep, period doubling, one-well, and two-well chaos, superharmonic resonances and on and off chaotic oscillations are found. DOI: 10.1115/1.4002086