NONLINEAR STRUCTURAL BEHAVIOR OF DOUBLE-LAYERS BASED MEMS ACTUATOR

In this paper, the static behavior of a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) based on two electrically coupled parallel clamped-clamped microbeams is investigated. The assumed discretization technique in this investigation is the reduced order modeling (ROM). The ROM was derived based on the Galerkin expansion method while assuming linear undamped mode shapes of a straight fixed-fixed beam as the basis functions. The results showed that the double-microbeam MEMS switch configuration requires a lower actuation voltage and a lower switching time as compared to the single microbeam actuator. Then, the effects of both microbeams air gap depths were investigated. Finally, the eigenvalue problem was investigated to get the variation of the fundamental natural frequencies of the coupled parallel microbeams with the applied actuating DC load.