GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING

ECE/ME/ChBE 6460: Microelectromechanical Devices
Spring Semester 2015, Homework #2
Homework Due Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2015
1.

Lumped Element Modeling: (20 points)

Two coupled mechanical resonators are characterized by the following diagram:

(a) Sketch an (electrical) equivalent circuit for the mechanical system.

(b) Use complex impedances to find the transfer function v2/F with dx2/dt = v2.
(c) Calculate (using Mathematica or Matlab) the amplitude x2/F and velocity transfer
characteristic v2/F of the mechanical system (for 10kHz f 1MHz), assuming k1 = k2
= 500 N/m, k3 = 100 N/m, m1 = m2 = 1 g, and b = 10-4 kg/s.
2.

Axially and Transversely Loaded Beam: (20 points)

(a) Axially Loaded Beam: Assume that silicon will fracture when the axial stress reaches
1 GPa. Find the maximum length of a vertical silicon beam, which, under the action of
its own gravitational load, will not exceed this fracture stress.
(b) Transversely Loaded Beam: You fabricate a silicon cantilever beam (E = 160 GPa,
= 0, = 2330 kg/m3) with length, width and thickness of L = 500 m, W = 100 m,
and h = 10 m, respectively. What is the deflection at the free end of the horizontal
cantilever due to the cantilever's own gravitational load?
Note: You can verify your results using FEM simulations.

ECE/ME/ChBE 6460: Homework #2

Due Date: March 10, 2015

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3.

Thin Film Stress Test Structure: (30 points)

Your advisor asks you to design a surface micromachined test structure to measure the thinfilm stress in a deposited 1m thick polysilicon film. He gives you a sketch of the test
structure (see below) with the dimensions that he thinks are appropriate. Knowing that the
expected thin film stress is +100MPa, you want to make sure that the deflection of the
central beam upon release can be easily measured with a microscope. Thus, you perform a 2D finite element simulation of the microstructure to simulate the expected displacement
using the material properties of polysilicon E = 160 GPa, = 0.22 and = 2320 kg/m3.
(a) What is the resulting deflection at the end of the horizontal beam?
(b) What is the maximum stress developing in the thin anchor beams that connect the
vertical beams to the horizontal beam?
(c) Verify your simulated displacement in (a) by estimating the expected displacement of the
horizontal beam using simple geometrical considerations (neglecting that the vertical
beams are actually bending slightly).
Note that the small anchor beams that attach the vertical beams to the horizontal beam have
a center-to-center separation of 30m.

ECE/ME/ChBE 6460: Homework #2

Due Date: March 10, 2015

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4.

Doubly-Supported Beam: (30 points)

Assume that you have fabricated a doubly-supported beam by anisotropic wet silicon
etching from the back of the wafer (see schematic with dimensions below). Using finite
element simulations, you try to explore the influence of the boundary conditions on the
center deflection of the beam. Using the material properties of silicon E = 169 GPa, =
0.064 and = 2330 kg/m3 and a pressure of 1 bar (105 Pa) applied to the top of the 1000 m
wide, 1000 m long and 50 m thick bridge, calculate
(a) the center deflection wmax,a for the case that the bridge is rigidly clamped (fixed boundary
conditions) at its edges.
(b) the center deflection wmax,b for the case that the bridge is connected to a silicon support
structure which is rigidly clamped (fixed boundary conditions) at its bottom.
(c) Compare the ratio of the center deflection from (b) to (a), i.e. wmax,b/wmax,a, for a 50 m
thick membrane and a 100 m thick membrane (all other dimensions remain the same).
Note: use a 2-D FEM model only.

ECE/ME/ChBE 6460: Homework #2

Due Date: March 10, 2015

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