Influence of Micro-Cantilever Geometry and Gap on Pull-in Voltage

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the geometry and gap size of microcantilever beams affect their pull-in voltage using finite difference methods, providing insights for MEMS device design.

Contribution

It introduces a finite difference approach to analyze microcantilever behavior and compares stability limits with simplified models, enhancing understanding of design parameters.

Findings

Length, width, and gap size significantly influence pull-in voltage.

Finite difference method provides detailed stability analysis.

Comparison shows differences between detailed and simplified models.

Abstract

In this paper, we study the behaviour of a microcantilever beam under electrostatic actuation using finite difference method. This problem has a lot of applications in MEMS based devices like accelerometers, switches and others. In this paper, we formulated the problem of a cantilever beam with proof mass at its end and carried out the finite difference solution. we studied the effects of length, width, and the gap size on the pull-in voltage using data that are available in the literature. Also, the stability limit is compared with the single degree of freedom commonly used in the earlier literature as an approximation to calculate the pull-in voltage.