Design analysis, modeling and simulation of novel rectangular cantilever beam for MEMS sensors and energy harvesting applications

Abstract

Many research investigations reveal that most of the MEMS devices employ a beam whose frequency and deflection responses are major concern before choosing it for a specific application. This paper deals with designing and simulation of various MEMS based rectangular shaped cantilever beams. The rigorous studies have been done to obtain modeling equations for characterizing beams deflection and frequency responses. The beam was designed with Si, Au, PZT-8 and PVDF-760 materials and simulations were performed using COMSOL Multiphysics FEM model to investigate behavior of these beams in terms of deflection and frequencies by varying beam length ‘L’. Through the simulations and analytical results it was also observed that the resonant frequencies of the beam have less impact due to width and height but was mostly dependent on the length of the beam. These micro-cantilever beams are found very useful for designing MEMS sensors, resonators and oscillators for RF applications.