By controlling the degrees of freedom for the components in the system and using a PWL solver, a tradeoff between speed and accuracy is realized. Electrical components are modeled using a similar MNA technique. The interaction between electrical and mechanical components is accomplished by modeling the coupled energy between the domains. In this paper we demonstrate the capabilities of our syst...

The effect of flexibility and initial curvature of moving plates in parallel-plate MEMS capacitors are investigated. A parallel-plate-based MEMS tunable capacitor with extended tunability and linear capacitance-voltage (C-V) response is introduced. The design combines the flexibility and curvature of the electrode with an array of mechanical stoppers to increase the overall stiffness of the dev...

RF MEMS switches can be used to achieve reconfigurability of various RF systems and in particularly for miniaturized antenna structures. In case of micro machined antennas, which involve low voltage signals, RF MEMS switches with low actuation voltage are required for achieving reconfigurability. The capacitive shunt switch derives its switching property from the significant difference of its c...

We present a simple and effective ratcheted microfluidic mixer that uses contact charge electrophoresis (CCEP) of a micron-scale particle to rapidly mix nonpolar liquids. CCEP combines contact charging and electrostatic actuation to drive the continuous oscillatory motion of a conductive particle between two electrodes subject to a constant (DC) voltage. We show how this oscillatory motion can ...

There is strong experimental evidence for the existence of strange modes of failure of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices under mechanical shock and impact. Such failures have not been explained with conventional models of MEMS. These failures are characterized by overlaps between moving microstructures and stationary electrodes, which cause electrical shorts. This work presents mode...

the static pull-in instability of beam-type micro-electromechanical systems is theoretically investigated. two engineering cases including cantilever and double cantilever micro-beam are considered. considering the mid-plane stretching as the source of the nonlinearity in the beam behavior, a nonlinear size-dependent euler-bernoulli beam model is used based on a modified couple stress theory, c...

A unique T-beam microresonator designed to operate on the principle of nonlinear modal interactions due to 1 : 2 internal resonance is introduced. Specifically, the T-structure is designed to have two flexural modes with natural frequencies in a 1 : 2 ratio, and the higher frequency mode autoparametrically excites the lower frequency mode through inertial quadratic nonlinearities. A Lagrangian ...

This paper reports a new dual-servo-scanning-mirror, which makes use of thermal and electrostatic driving principles. By tuning loading of the thermal and electrostatic actuator individually, one can increase the scanning-angle of the mirror. INTRODUCTION Micromirrors are becoming more and more relevant, particularly for the display and telecommunication industry [1-7]. Usually, large continuou...