Finite Element Modeling of Electrostatic MEMS Including the Impact of Fringing Field Effects on Forces

Author

Boutaayamou, M. ; Nair, K.H. ; Sabariego, R.V. ; Dular, P.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Liege Univ.

fYear

2006

fDate

24-26 April 2006

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

5

Abstract

The numerical models describing the behaviour of electrostatically actuated microsystems often disregard fringing fields. However, taking the fringing fields into account is crucial for an accurate computation of the electrostatic forces. In this work, the finite element method is applied for modeling electrostatic actuators. The electrostatic force distribution is obtained by locally applying the virtual work method. A micro-beam and a comb drive are considered as test cases. The impact of the fringing field effects on the accuracy of electrostatic forces is shown through 2D and 3D parametric studies

Keywords

electrostatic actuators; electrostatics; finite element analysis; comb drive; electrostatic MEMS; electrostatic actuators; electrostatically actuated microsystems; finite element modeling; fringing field effects; micro-beam; Computer science; Conductors; Electrostatic actuators; Finite element methods; Microactuators; Micromechanical devices; Numerical models; Solid modeling; Testing; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Thermal, Mechanical and Multiphysics Simulation and Experiments in Micro-Electronics and Micro-Systems, 2006. EuroSime 2006. 7th International Conference on

Conference_Location

Como

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0275-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ESIME.2006.1643959

Filename

1643959