Design considerations of rectangular electrostatic torsion actuators based on new analytical pull-in expressions

Author

Degani, Ofir ; Nemirovsky, Yael

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Technion-Israel Inst. of Technol., Haifa, Israel

Volume

11

Issue

1

fYear

2002

fDate

2/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

20

Lastpage

26

Abstract

An important design issue of electrostatic torsion actuator is the relative locations of the actuating electrodes, where the bias voltage is applied. These geometrical design parameters affect both the pull-in angle as well as the pull-in voltage. In this paper, a new approximated analytical solution for the pull-in equation of an electrostatic torsion actuator with rectangular plates is derived. The analytical expression is shown to be within 0.1% of the one degree of freedom (1DOF) lumped-element model numerical simulations. Moreover, the analytical expressions are compared with the full coupled-domain finite-elements/boundary-elements (FEM/BEM) simulations provided by MEMCAD4.8 Co-solve tool, showing excellent agreement. The approach presented here provides better physical insight, more rapid simulations and an improved design optimization tool for the actuator

Keywords

boundary-elements methods; electrostatic actuators; finite element analysis; microelectrodes; torsion; MEMCAD4.8 Co-solve tool; actuating electrode location; analytical pull-in expressions; bias voltage; electrostatic torsion actuator; geometrical design parameters; pull-in angle; pull-in voltage; rectangular plates; rectangular torsion actuators; Analytical models; Design optimization; Electrodes; Electrostatic actuators; Electrostatic analysis; Equations; Finite element methods; Numerical models; Numerical simulation; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microelectromechanical Systems, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1057-7157

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/84.982859

Filename

982859