An investigation of the damping effects of various gas environments on a vibratory MEMS device

►An experimental investigation of the damping effects in several different gas chemistries on a vibrating micromachined structure was conducted. ►A corresponding numerical study using an analytical model was also performed and the results correlated with the experimental observations. ►The analytical model is based on the compressible Reynolds equation. ►The theoretical and experimental quality factor show reasonable agreement for different gases. ►As expected, the quality factor decreases as the gas pressure increases. ►Both experiments and numerical predictions suggest that these various gases may not affect the mechanical behavior significantly, and could be used for their unique electrical properties, such as permittivities.