Modeling the Electromechanical Response of Electrostatic Actuators

Abstract

Electrostatic actuation of micro-devices was introduced four decades ago in the pioneering work of Nathanson et al. [1], and many applications have been found since [2, 3]. Electrostatic actuation is prevalent in MEMS due to its compatibility with microfabrication technology, and its low power consumption. Many studies of electrostatic actuators have been presented in the literature, and many different methods for modeling their static and dynamic response have been proposed (e.g. [4]). A review of the different modeling methods is not within the scope of this chapter. The purpose of this chapter is to present a coherent and systematic approach for modeling the static electromechanical response of electrostatic actuators, and to present some design rules. The examples discussed in this chapter are models of actual systems. These models have simple geometry, linear elastic suspensions, and they do not consider fringing field capacitance. Nevertheless, the analysis of the electromechanical response of these model problems provides useful tools for preliminary design.