An energy-based electroelastic beam model for MEMS applications

Competent modeling of an electroelastic beam configuration is of major importance for MEMS. MEMS motors, based on such a deformable capacitor, are driven by one or more voltage sources. A coherent model of limited complexity and expressed in design parameters is derived for an inchworm actuator. The two physical regimes; the stick and non-stick, are matched, such that a smooth, single energy profile arises. The pull-in voltage, the hysteresis loop, jump-back voltage, the step size, and the dissipated energies are determined as function of these design parameters. The results are compared to measurements with the μ Walker.