Deflection Analysis of Electrostatic Micro-actuators Using the Differential Quadrature Method

The nonlinear pull-in behaviors of various electrostatic micro-actuators were simulated. The differential quadrature method (DQM) was applied to overcome the difficulty in solving the nonlinear equation of motion. Various types of micro-actuators, such as the cantilever beam actuator and the fixed-fixed beam actuator were derived and simulated to examine the feasibility of applying the DQM to the nonlinear deflection in solving the micro-actuator problem. The calculated results agreed very closely with those in the literature. This study presents a nonlinear deflection analysis of electrostatic curved electrode actuators using the DQM. The characteristics of various combinations of shaped cantilevers and curved electrodes are also considered to optimize the design. The determination of the static deflections of the uniform actuator and the non-uniform actuator using the DQM is efficient. The deflections of non-uniform actuators with various voltages are obtained. Numerical results are compared with experimental results to derive the efficient and systematic procedure for solving nonlinear differential equations.