Casimir and Van der Waals Effects on Electrostatically Actuated NEMS Resonator Sensors

The behavior of nano and micro-electromechanical systems (N/MEMS) cantilever beams under electrostatic actuation is studied. The cantilever system is actuated by soft AC voltage that is set to a frequency of near half natural and near natural frequency of the beam. These actuating frequencies result in primary and parametric resonances, respectively. Two methods are used to analytically model the behavior of the cantilever. The first method is Method of Multiple Scales (MMS), which is a perturbation method that works for small parameters. The second method is the Reduced Order Method (ROM), which is a Galerkin method that works for large parameters. By using both methods the results can be validated and ensure that they are accurate. The amplitude-frequency response and amplitude-voltage response are investigated for both resonances. The influence of the parameters damping, fringe effect, voltage, detuning frequency, Casimir force, and Van der Waals force are investigated