Comprehensive Analytical Approximations of the Pull-In Characteristics of an Electrostatically Actuated Nanobeam under the Influences of Intermolecular Forces

In this paper, analytical closed-form expressions to accurately estimate the pull-in characteristics of an electrostatically-actuated doubly-clamped nanobeam are derived and examined. In this regard, a coupled electro-mechanical problem for the nano-actuator is first presented assuming a single mode approximation while taking into account all the possible structural, electrical and nanoscale effects: the fringing of the electrical actuating force, the geometric mid-plane stretching and intermolecular (van der Walls and Casimir) forces. The complicated nonlinear resultant equations are numerically approximated in order to derive the closed-form expressions for the important nano-actuator pull-in characteristics: i.e., the detachment length, the minimum reachable gap size before the collapse and the respective pull-in voltage. The resulting closed-form expressions are first quantitatively validated with other previously published results, and comparisons showed an acceptable agreement. Unlike the reported expressions in the literature, the proposed closed-form expressions in this work are proper approximations, fairly accurate and, more importantly, provide a quick estimate of the critical design pull-in parameters of the nano-actuator. In addition, the analysis of these expressions demonstrated that the consideration of the intermolecular forces together with the fringe effect tends to significantly reduce the threshold pull-in voltage, whereas the mid-plane stretching parameter tends to the contrary to increase the voltage at the pull-in collapse. The derived expressions of these analytical/approximate solutions could hopefully be appropriately used by NEMS engineers as simple/quick procedures for successful design and fabrication of electrostatically-actuated nano-devices.