In order to investigate the effects of geometric imperfections on the static and dynamic behavior of capacitive micomachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs), the governing equations of motion of a circular microplate with initial defection have been derived using the von Kármán plate theory while taking into account the mechanical and electrostatic nonlinearities. The partial differential equations are discretized using the differential quadrature method (DQM) and the resulting coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODEs) are solved using the harmonic balance method (HBM) coupled with the asymptotic numerical method (ANM). It is shown that the initial deflection has an impact on the static behavior of the CMUT by increasing its pull-in voltage up to 45%. Moreover, the dynamic behavior is affected by the initial deflection, enabling an increase in the resonance frequencies and the bistability domain and leading to a change of the frequency response from softening to hardening. This model allows MEMS designers to predict the nonlinear behavior of imperfect CMUT and tune its bifurcation topology in order to enhance its performances in terms of bandwidth and generated acoustic power while driving the microplate up to 80% beyond its critical amplitude.
Keywords: CMUT; differential quadrature method; geometric imperfection; nonlinear dynamics; von Kármán plate theory.