Mechanical Behaviors Research and the Structural Design of a Bipolar Electrostatic Actuation Microbeam Resonator

• Main Authors: Jingjing Feng, Cheng Liu, Wei Zhang, Jianxin Han, Shuying Hao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-03-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: parametric equation; finite element methods; Simulink dynamics simulation; softening-hardening transition points
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/19/6/1348

A class of bipolar electrostatically actuated micro-resonators is presented in this paper. Two parametric equations are proposed for changing the microbeam shape of the upper and lower sections. The mechanical properties of a micro-resonator can be enhanced by optimizing the two section parameters. The electrostatic force nonlinearity, neutral surface tension, and neutral surface bending are considered in the model. First, the theoretical results are verified with finite element results from COMSOL Multiphysics simulations. The influence of section variation on the electrostatic force, pull-in behaviors and safe working area of the micro-resonator are studied. Moreover, the impact of residual stress on pull-in voltage is discussed. The multi-scale method (MMS) is used to further study the vibration of the microbeam near equilibrium, and the relationship between the two section parameters of the microbeam under linear vibration was determined. The vibration amplitude and resonance frequency are investigated when the two section parameters satisfy the linear vibration. In order to research dynamic analysis under the case of large amplitude. The Simulink dynamics simulation was used to study the influence of section variation on the response frequency. It is found that electrostatic softening increases as the vibration amplitude increases. If the nonlinearity initially shows hardening behavior, the frequency response will shift from hardening to softening as the amplitude increases. The position of softening-hardening transition point decreases with the increase of residual stress. The relationship between DC voltage, section parameters, and softening-hardening transition points is presented. The accuracy of the results is verified using theoretical, numerical, and finite element methods.