A combined atomistic/continuum analysis of nanoelectromechanical systems

Abstract

A multiscale method combining atomistic and continuum regions is presented to predict the static response of Nanoelectromechanical (NEM) switches. The atomistic and continuum regions are combined by using a Schwartz technique with either overlapped subdomains and Dirichlet-Dirichlet type boundary conditions, or non-overlapped subdomains and Dirichlet-Neumann type boundary conditions. The continuum regions are treated by nonlinear elastic theories and the atomistic regions are treated by the molecular dynamics (MD) method. The accuracy of the multiscale approach is checked. by comparing results obtained with the MD technique for the entire device or geometry. Finally, the convergence behavior of the multiscale approach is investigated in detail.