Abstract
Enhancing the sensitivity of an electrostatically actuated resonant switch (EARS) for earthquake detection is investigated. The resonator is proposed to operate close to instability bands of frequency-response curves, where it is forced to pull-in if operated within these bands. By careful tuning, the resonator can be made to enter the instability zone upon the detection of the earthquake signal, thereby pulling-in as a switch. Such a switching action can be functionalized for alarming purposes or can be used to activate a network of sensors for seismic activity recording. By placing such a resonator on a printed circuit board of a natural frequency close to that of the earthquake's frequency, significant improvement on the detection limit of this switch is achieved. In this work, nonlinear Single-Degree-Of-Freedom (SDOF) and 2-Degree-Of-Freedom (2-DOF) models are used to simulate the performance of the switch concept.