Dynamic characteristics of voltage induced reciprocated bending in double cantilever configuration of asymmetric comb drive MEMS

The dynamic characteristics of an electrostatically actuated double cantilever beam, often found in asymmetric comb drive microstructures, have been investigated in the present paper. A coupled electromechanical problem is formulated and solved to obtain different performance parameters like pull-in voltage, frequency response etc. Effects of various critical factors on the dynamic pull-in characteristics have been discussed elaborately. It has been further observed through extensive studies that, the dynamic pull-in characteristics differ considerably from the static characteristics for the double beam configuration. Finally, these observations have been supported by experimental results with a fabricated (in SOIMUMPS process) double cantilever based microstructure, using a simple in-house developed low cost test set up. A typical case of design of a closed loop MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) capacitive accelerometer has also been discussed where the present study finds ready applications to predict the dynamic pull-in characteristics more accurately than the conventional lumped model.