Designing Piezoelectric Interdigitated Microactuators using COMSOL

O. Myers [1], M. Anjanappa [2], and C. Freidhoff [3]

[1] Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, USA
[2] University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA
[3] Northrop Grumman Corporation, Electronics Systems Sector, Baltimore, MD, USA
Published in 2008

This paper presents a methodology towards designing, analyzing and optimizing piezoelectric interdigitated microactuators using COMSOL Multiphysics. The models used in this study were based on a circularly interdigitated design that takes advantage of primarily the d{;sub}33 electromechanical piezoelectric constant coefficient.

Because of the symmetric nature of the devices, 2D axisymmetric models were developed to characterize the behavior of the diaphragms. The variation in the design parameters and their effect on deflection was captured using these models. Discrete models were then used to capture the variations in key design parameters during fabrication. The numerical models correlate well to the maximum deflection of the experimental devices.

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