Finite element simulations for the design of micro electro-mechanical systems

Miniaturisation and integration are the key words for future technical developments. They enable savings in space, material and energy. The accurate prediction of the physical behaviour of such micro devices is required to enable short development times and to be able to study their various working principles. To ensure a particular safety in predicting the behaviour of such microstructures, accurate and professional design tools are required. Such tools use numerical models of the micro device and can simulate their physical behaviour. A field computation method with a very general application range is the finite element method (FEM). Various problems, such as magnetic, electric, mechanical and thermal fields can be studied with this numerical tool. In this contribution, the modelling of micro motors operated by the electrostatic field are discussed. The variants of radial and axial field micro motors are considered