Abstract
The development of new compliant resonant microsystems and the trend towards further miniaturization have recently raised the issue of the accuracy and reliability of computational tools for the estimation of fluid damping. Focusing on electrostatically actuated torsional micro-mirrors, a major dissipation contribution is linked to the constrained flow of air at comb fingers. In the case of large tilting angles of the mirror plate, within a period of oscillation the geometry of the air domain at comb-drives gets largely distorted, and the dissipation mechanism is thereby affected. In this communication, we provide an appraisal of simple analytical solutions to estimate the dissipation in the ideal case of air flow between infinite plates, at atmospheric pressure. The results of numerical simulations are also reported to assess the effect on damping of the finite size of actual geometries.
Highlights
Starting from the late 1990s, the fields of application of micro-electromechanical-systems (MEMS) have been progressively expanding [1,2], leading to state-of-the-art devices like accelerometers and gyroscopes [3], gas sensors [4], bio-MEMS [5], and micro-opto-electromechanical-systems (MOEMS) [6], which are available at low cost.For a resonating system, energy dissipation plays an important role in modulating its response; such dissipation is customarily measured via the quality factor of the structure
We provide an appraisal of simple analytical solutions to estimate the dissipation in the ideal case of air flow between infinite plates, at atmospheric pressure
We have provided an appraisal of analytical solutions to estimate energy dissipation in the case of shear flow within a thin air film bounded by two infinite plates
Summary
Starting from the late 1990s, the fields of application of micro-electromechanical-systems (MEMS) have been progressively expanding [1,2], leading to state-of-the-art devices like accelerometers and gyroscopes [3], gas sensors [4], bio-MEMS [5], and micro-opto-electromechanical-systems (MOEMS) [6], which are available at low cost.For a resonating system, energy dissipation plays an important role in modulating its response; such dissipation is customarily measured via the quality factor of the structure. A so-called first-order finite slip model was reported in [12] to account rather accurately for the rarefaction effects at large values of the Knudsen number Kn, which is defined in the considered case as the ratio between the mean free path of air molecules and the width of the film.
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