Besides the scale factor that distinguishes the various spices fundamentally biological muscles changes little between species indicating a highly optimized system, Electroactive polymer actuators offer the closest resemblance to biological muscles however beside the large actuation displacement these materials are falling short with regards to the actuation force. As improved materials emergin...

We propose an electrostatically-actuated microelectromechanical digital-to-analog converter (M-DAC) device with low actuation voltage. The spring structures of the silicon-based M-DAC device were monolithically fabricated using parylene-C. Because the Young's modulus of parylene-C is considerably lower than that of silicon, the electrostatic microactuators in the proposed device require much lo...

In this paper, the stability of a functionally graded magneto-electro-elastic (FG-MEE) micro-beam under actuation of electrostatic pressure is studied. For this purpose Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and constitutive relations for magneto-electro-elastic (MEE) materials have been used. We have supposed that material properties vary exponentially along the thickness direction of the micro-beam. Gov...

There is strong experimental evidence for the existence of strange modes of failure of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices under mechanical shock and impact. Such failures have not been explained with conventional models of MEMS. These failures are characterized by overlaps between moving microstructures and stationary electrodes, which cause electrical shorts. This work presents mode...

A MEMS varactor using torsional beams for actuation is proposed. Analytical expression for electrostatic torque developed is derived. The structure is compared with existing structures for dynamic range and actuation voltage. It is demonstrated that the proposed varactor outperforms the other structures in terms of wide dynamic range and lower actuation voltage, coupled with ease of fabrication...

By applying atomic force microscope (AFM)-based force spectroscopy together with computational modeling in the form of molecular force-field simulations, we have determined quantitatively the actuation energetics of a synthetic motor-molecule. This multidisciplinary approach was performed on specifically designed, bistable, redox-controllable [2]rotaxanes to probe the steric and electrostatic i...