Finite Element Analysis of the Electro-Mechanical Coupling in MEMS

Abstract

This paper concerns the modelling of the strong electro-mechanical coupling appearing in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). These systems are very small devices (typical size of a few microns), in which electric phenomena as well as mechanical and dynamical phenomena exist. The coupling between the electric and mechanical fields induce non-linear terms in the dynamic equilibrium equations of these microscopic structures so that instability may occur. In this paper, the finite element method (FEM) is used to perform modal analysis around non-linear equilibrium positions, taking into account large displacements