On the Structural Behavior of MEMS Shallow Arch under Combined Effects of In-Plane Parallel Fields and Out-of-Plane Fringing-Fields

Abstract

We propose to study the nonlinear stroke and lower-order modal interactions of a clamped–clamped shallow-arch flexible micro-electrode. The flexible electrode is electrically actuated through an in-plane parallel-plates field superimposed over out-of-plane electrostatic fringing fields. The in-plane electrostatic fields result from a difference of potential between the initially curved flexible electrode and a lower stationary parallel-grounded electrode. Moreover, the out-of-plane fringing fields are mainly due to the out-of-plane asymmetry of the flexible shallow arch and two respective surrounding stationary side electrodes (left and right). A nonlinear beam model is first introduced, consisting of a nonlinear partial differential equation governing the flexible shallow-arch in-plane deflection. Then, a resultant reduced-order model (ROM) is derived assuming a Galerkin modal decomposition with mode-shapes of a clamped–clamped beam as basis functions. The ROM coupled modal equations are numerically solved to obtain the static deflection. The results indicate the possibility of mono-stable and bi-stable structural behaviors for this particular device, depending on the flexible electrode’s initial rise and the size of its stationary side electrodes. The eigenvalue problem is also derived and examined to estimate the variation of the first three lower natural frequencies of the device when the microbeam is electrostatically actuated. The proposed micro-device is tunable with the possibility of pull-in-free states in addition to modal interactions through linear coupled mode veering and crossover processes. Remarkably, the veering zone between the first and third modes can be electrostatically adjusted and reach 22.6kHz for a particular set of design parameters.