Furlani E.
Eastman Kodak Co., US
Keywords: electrostatic analysis, finite element analysis, grating light valve, MEMS simulation, microbeam deflection
The Grating Light Valve (GLV) is a microelectromechanical reflection phase grating that operates on the electrostatic deflection of microbeams. In this paper we discuss a method for simulating GLVs. This method entails the solution of a nonlinear fourth-order beam equation with a forcing function, which is based on a parallelplate capacitor model. We examine the accuracy of the force model using 2D finite element analysis (FEA). We show that this model renders force values that are within 90% of the FEA values. We also compute microbeam deflection profiles and switching voltages, and demonstrate that rigorous GLV simulations can be performed in a few minutes on a personal computer.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: Technical Proceedings of the 1998 International Conference on Modeling and Simulation of Microsystems
Published: April 6, 1998
Pages: 614 - 618
Industry sector: Sensors, MEMS, Electronics
Topics: MEMS & NEMS Devices, Modeling & Applications, Photonic Materials & Devices
ISBN: 0-96661-35-0-3