Nonlinear electromechanical behaviour of an electrostatic microrelay

In this paper experiments on the quasistatic and dynamic behaviour of the electrostatic polysilicon microrelay fabricated at IMT are presented together with new nonlinear dynamical models. The models simulate the pull-in voltage, the resonance frequency, the quality factor, the switching time and the electrostatic spring softening of the microrelay. Simulation of the pull-in voltage has been done with MIT's MEMCAD system, the resonance frequency has been simulated with Abaqus/sup TM/, while macro-models developed at MIT have been used to simulate the dynamics of the nonlinear actuator in the presence of squeeze-film damping.