Study of pull-in voltage of a perforated SMA based MEMS Switch

Abstract

This paper involves the study of pull-in voltage of a Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) based cantilever beam. The study is carried out by applying electrostatic forces and varying the dimensions. Nitinol which is a SMA is used for the simulation to get required results. An electrostatic force generated by an applied voltage between the top movable micro-cantilever and fixed ground plane bends the micro-cantilever beam towards the ground plane below it. COMSOL Multiphysics is used to simulate the results. The pull-in voltage is found to be 4.5V and when the same model is perforated, the pull-in voltage of micro-cantilever Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System (MEMS) Switch is reduced to 3.20V.