The strain gradient effect in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)

Author

Xue, Zhenyu ; Saif, M. A Taher ; Huang, Yonggang

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. & Ind. Eng., Illinois Univ., Urbana, IL, USA

Volume

11

Issue

1

fYear

2002

fDate

2/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

27

Lastpage

35

Abstract

Metallic materials display strong size effect when the characteristic length of deformation is of the order of microns. The theory of mechanism-based strain gradient (MSG) plasticity established from the Taylor dislocation model has captured this size dependence of material behavior at the micron scale very well. The strain gradient effect in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) is investigated in this paper via the MSG plasticity theory since the typical size of MEMS is of the order of microns (comparable to the internal material length in MSG plasticity). Through an example of a digital micromirror device (DMD), it is shown that the strain gradient effect significantly increases the mechanical strain energy in the DMD, and reduces the rotation time of the micromirror. However, the strain gradient has no effect on the critical bias voltage governing the fast rotation of the micromirror

Keywords

micro-optics; micromechanical devices; mirrors; plasticity; size effect; MSG plasticity theory; Taylor dislocation model; characteristic length of deformation; critical bias voltage; digital micromirror device; mechanical strain energy; mechanism-based strain gradient plasticity; microelectromechanical systems; rotation time; size effect; strain gradient effect; Capacitive sensors; Displays; Electrodes; Fasteners; Microelectromechanical systems; Micromechanical devices; Micromirrors; Mirrors; Optical sensors; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microelectromechanical Systems, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1057-7157

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/84.982860

Filename

982860