This paper represents the impact of beam thickness and air gap upon the performance of cantilever MEMS switches having different beam materials (Al, Au metals). A comparative analysis of spring constant, effective mass, pull-in voltage, capacitance of cantilever based MEMS switch has been performed by 3D simulation using COMSOL Multiphysics based on Finite Element Method [FEM]. Different parame...

Design, fabrication, and testing of a micromachined cantilever beam that is optically transmissive and operates in the resonant mode is presented with application as a micro-optical scanner. An optical waveguide is formed from a 2.2 mm thick SiO2 layer deposited on a single crystal silicon wafer and etched to yield a SiO2/Si composite slab cantilever. Using a novel capacitively coupled reactive...

A self-compensating fiber optic flow sensor system based on the principle of broadband white-light interferometers and cantilever beam bending is described. The fiber optic sensor system uses two fiber ferrule sensors that are bonded on either side of a cantilever beam to measure the flow rate by monitoring the air-gap changes caused by the bending of the cantilever beam. Cross sensitivity of t...

This paper explores the structure, composition, and mechanical properties of porcupine fish spines for the first time. The spine was found to be composed of nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite, protein (collagen), and water using X-ray diffraction, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. Microstructures have mineralized fibrillar sheets in the longitudinal direction and...

The free vibration analysis of rotating functionally graded (FG) nano-beams under an in-plane thermal loading is provided for the first time in this paper. The formulation used is based on Euler-Bernoulli beam theory through Hamilton’s principle and the small scale effect has been formulated using the Eringen elasticity theory. Then, they are solved by a generalized differential quadrature meth...

In this paper, a bio-inspired bending actuator was designed and fabricated using piezoelectric patches and cantilever-shaped beam for controlling nose shape. The aim of this study is to investigate the use of the bending actuator. PZT and single crystal PMN-PT actuators were used to generate translational strain and shear stress. The piezoelectric patches were attached on the clamped cantilever...

This paper focuses on the development of a complete model of an atomic force microscope (AFM) micro-cantilever beam, based on considering the effects of four major factors in modeling the cantilever. They are: rotary inertia and shear deformation of the beam and mass and rotary inertia of the tip. A method based on distributed-parameter modeling approach is proposed to solve the governing equat...

Measurement of gas density and viscosity was conducted using a micro-cantilever beam. In parallel, the validity of the proposed modeling approach was evaluated. This study also aimed to widen the database of the gases on which the model development of the micro-cantilever beams is based. The density and viscosity of gases are orders of magnitude lower than liquids. For this reason, the use of a...

A working model has been developed which can be used to significantly increase the accuracy of cantilever deflection measurements using optical beam techniques (used in cantilever-based sensors and atomic force microscopes), while simultaneously simplifying their use. By using elementary geometric optics and standard vector analysis it is possible, without any fitted or adjustable parameters, t...