A Numerical Procedure for Obtaining the Static and Pull-In Deflection and Voltage of Capacitive Microcantilever Beams

A numerical procedure is proposed for obtaining the static deflection, pull-in (PI) deflection and PI voltage of electrostatically excited capacitive microcantilever beams. The method is not time and memory consuming as Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Nonlinear ordinary differential equation of the static deflection of the beam is derived, w/wo considering the fringing field effects. The nondimensional parameters upon which PI voltage is dependent are then found. Thereafter, using the parameters and the numerical method, three closed form equations for pull-in voltage are developed. The results are in good agreement with others in literature.