Dynamics simulation of microelectromechanical electrostatic actuator incorporating the squeeze-film damping effect

Abstract

In this study, the influences of the squeeze-film damping effect on the dynamic behavior of the microelectromechanical electrostatic actuators are investigated by the hybrid numerical scheme comprising the differential transformation method and the finite difference method. There are two types of actuators which including the circular micro-plate and the clamped-clamped micro-beam, relatively. The analyses take account of the axial stress effect, the residual stress and the fringing field effect within the micro actuators and explore the dynamic response of the plate/beam as a function of the magnitude of the AC driving voltage. The effectiveness of a combined DC/AC loading scheme in driving the micro actuators are examined. It is shown that the use of an AC actuating voltage in addition to the DC driving voltage provides an effective means of tuning the dynamic response of the micro actuators. Therefore, the results show that the hybrid method provides an accurate and computationally-efficient means of analyzing the nonlinear behavior of the micro-beam structures used in many of today’s MEMS-based actuator systems.