Stochastic Modeling of the Pull-In Voltage in a MEMS Beam Structure

This paper deals with a stochastic approach to model the pull-in voltage in a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) beam structure. Two nonintrusive stochastic techniques are used: a sampling method, based on Monte-Carlo simulations and a polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) approach. The deterministic model solves an electro-mechanical problem using a coupled 2-D finite element (FE) electrostatic and Euler-Bernoulli beam equation mechanical model. The influence on the pull-in voltage of three parameters subjected to uncertainty (material properties and shape) was investigated. Also, the advantage of the PCE method, compared to Monte-Carlo sampling method, was emphasized.