Piezoresistive pressure sensors were some of the first MEMS devices to be commercialized. Compared to capacitive pressure sensors, they are simpler to integrate with electronics, their response is more linear and they are inherently...
A surface acoustic wave (SAW) is an acoustic wave propagating along the surface of a solid material. Its amplitude decays rapidly, often exponentially, through the depth of the material. SAWs are utilized in many kinds of electronic...
Squeezed-film gas damping is a critical aspect of many MEMS transducers and actuators. In accelerometers, for example, inertia produces a motion that the device detects. A typical structure connects a large proof mass to surrounding...
This tutorial model of a two-hot-arm thermal actuator couples three different physics phenomena: electric current conduction, heat conduction with heat generation, and structural stresses and strains due to thermal expansion. In this...
This example involves a static 2D axisymmetric analysis of a piezoelectric actuator using the Piezoelectric Devices physics interface. It models a radially polarized piezoelectric tube, as described by S. Peelamedu and co-authors. An...
An electrostatically actuated MEMS resonator is simulated in the time and frequency domains. The device is driven by an AC + DC bias voltage applied across a parallel plate capacitor. The dependence of the resonant frequency on DC bias is...
One method of creating spring-like structures or inducing curvature in thin structures is to plate them to substrates that are under the influence of residual stresses. The plating process can control this stress even for similar...
This model analyzes the thermal expansion in a MEMS device, such as a microgyroscope, where thermal expansion should be minimized. The device is made from the copper-beryllium alloy UNS C17500 and uses temperature-dependent material...
Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) resonators can be used as narrow band filters in radio-frequency applications. The chief advantage compared with traditional ceramic electromagnetic resonators is that BAW resonators, thanks to the acoustic...
This tutorial models a piezoelectrically actuated microgripper with mechanical contact. The microgripper contains a piezoelectric actuator that operates in the longitudinal mode. Elongation in the longitudinal direction creates a lifting...
