Despite its fundamental importance, physical mechanisms that govern friction are poorly understood. While a state of ultra-low friction, termed structural lubricity, is expected for any clean, atomically flat interface consisting of two different materials with incommensurate structures, some associated predictions could only be quantitatively confirmed under ultra-high vacuum (UHV) conditions ...

This paper presents a micro electrostatic vibration-to-electricity energy converter based on the micro-electromechanical system. For the 3.3 V supply voltage and 1 cm chip area constraints, optimal design parameters were found from theoretical calculation and Simulink simulation. In the current design, the output power is 200 lW/cm for the optimal load of 8 MW. The device was fabricated in a si...

Research and development on actuators has been accelerated with the aid of virtual prototyping software, like ANSYS. This is illustrated with two successful cases using ANSYS to design and optimize micro-electromechanical actuators. The first case is topology optimization of head suspension assembly for hard disk drive. The second case is design optimization of polymeric thermal micro-actuator....

The knife-edge method is a commonly used technique to characterize the optical profiles of laser beams or focused spots. In this paper, we present a micro knife-edge scanner fabricated in a silicon-on-insulator substrate using the micro-electromechanical-system technology. A photo detector can be fabricated in the device to allow further integration with on-chip signal conditioning circuitry. A...

in the current study the effect of casimir force and squeezed film damping on the pull-in instability and dynamic behavior of electrostatically actuated nano and micro electromechanical systems is investigated separately. linear elastic membrane theory is used to model the static and dynamic behavior of system for strip, annular and disk geometries. squeezed film damping effect is modeled using...

In the resent years wireless Home Automation products like lightning, thermostats blinds/drapes and appliance control, energy management, access control and building automation has reached the market. With the combination of highly integrated RF and micro-processor platform and micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) the wireless sensors and actuators of tomorrow will be ultra cheap and small an...

In this paper, we present the design, analysis and fabrication of MEMS based silicon micro-needles for insertion of fluid into the dermis and subcutaneous fat layer of human skin. Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) are uncovered to an assortment of liquid environments in applications such as chemical and biological sensors and microfluidic devices. In this paper, the design and fabrication ...

Over the past two decades there has been a surge in demand for accurate and precise 3D metrology machines to provide measurements in micron scale. This demand is encouraged by the need for quality and process control for the promised technological development of micro electromechanical systems (MEMS). Parallel mechanisms have been the subject of study as positioning machines. Parallel manipulat...

This work describes the design and optimization of three prototypes of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) capacitive accelerometer-based middle ear microphone. The microphone is intended for middle ear hearing aids as well as future fully implantable cochlear prosthesis. The analysis is done using COMSOL Multiphysics. The maximum applied acceleration was considered 1g. Human temporal bones a...

Large-scale networks of wireless sensors are becoming increasingly tractable. Advances in hardware technology and engineering design have led to dramatic reductions in size, power consumption and cost for digital circuitry, wireless communications and Micro ElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS). This has enabled very compact, autonomous and mobile nodes, each containing one or more sensors, computat...