Thermal Tuning of MEMS Buckled Membrane Actuator Stiffness
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-31-2014
Abstract
The thermal tuning characteristics of a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) buckled membrane exhibiting regions of both positive and negative stiffness is examined and analyzed using finite element method (FEM) simulation and through experimentation. The membranes are fabricated by releasing a silicon/silicon dioxide (Si/SiO2) laminated membrane from a silicon on insulator (SOI) wafer. The difference in thermal expansion coefficients between Si and SiO2 induces a compressive stress in the SiO2 layer causing out-of-plane buckling of the membrane. This structure is found to have positive and negative stiffness regions when actuated with a transverse force. It is demonstrated that the stiffness of the membrane can be tuned by introducing a thermal stress to the membrane. Comparisons between localized heating of the membrane and even heating of the entire substrate are shown to affect the direction of the membrane deflection and tuning characteristics.
Source Publication
Procedia Engineering
Recommended Citation
Lake, R. A., Ziegler, K. K., & Coutu, R. A. (2014). Thermal Tuning of MEMS Buckled Membrane Actuator Stiffness. Procedia Engineering, 87, 1382–1385. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2014.11.700
Comments
This is an open access article published by Elsevier and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
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